


The goddess and the unnecessary order

by Fantasticoncer



Series: The goddess, the goat and the lion [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Developing Relationship, Dolores Umbridge Bashing, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Good Draco Malfoy, Good Malfoy Family (Harry Potter), Good Severus Snape, Good Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger Bashing, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Long-Distance Relationship, Out of Character, Protective Remus Lupin, Protective Severus Snape, Protective Sirius Black, Remus Lupin Lives, Romantic Fluff, Ron Weasley Bashing, Sane Tom Riddle, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Sirius Black Free from Azkaban, Sirius Black Lives, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 31,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantasticoncer/pseuds/Fantasticoncer
Summary: Having succeeded in bringing Tom back, Harry and Helena have to be even more careful. Dumbledore has loudly declared "Voldemort" to be back, despite the twins both denying that anything happened directly after the third task and the ministry is out for the old goatA busy year is waiting for them as they prepare for their O.W.L exams at the end of the year and have to dodge Dumbledore and his pawns even more as their soulmarks have shown themselves.If that wasn't bad enough, the ministry has decided to sent a toad to Hogwarts
Relationships: Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Severus Snape, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter, Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Remus Lupin & Original Female Character(s), Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Viktor Krum/Padma Patil
Series: The goddess, the goat and the lion [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1185539
Comments: 466
Kudos: 287





	1. Meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

_"DAILY PROPHET REPORTER MISSING!"_

_"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE CLAIMS "YOU-KNOW-WHO" IS BACK ONCE AGAIN!_

_"FUDGE TELLS PUBLIC ALL IS WELL"_

"Hey Harry, it says here that Rita Skeeter is missing." Helena Snape said while reading the morning newspaper. "She is? Aw, that's a bummer. I really liked her articles." Harry said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice and his twin sister grinned. "He just will not give up, will he?" Remus Lupin asked, reading the newspaper over his goddaughter's shoulder and indicating the article about Dumbledore.

"No, but all the better for us. Let them focus on the old idiot while we secretly infiltrate the ministry. How's that going anyway?" Harry asked. "Several unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries are already on our side after one of us went to talk to them. They hate what Dumbledore is doing to magic by only trying to allow light magic to be used. There has to be a balance, otherwise, everything goes to hell." His godfather, Sirius Black answered, before looking up at hearing Remus suddenly let out a strangled sound. "Moony? What is it?" He asked in concern, walking towards him. 

Remus lifted the newspaper out of Helena's hands and showed his boyfriend the article he had seen. " _FENRIR GREYBACK FOUND DEAD IN MUGGLE GRAVEYARD!"_ The article's title read. "Oh Remus." Sirius whispered, wrapping his arm around the man. "He's.... gone." Remus breathed, before starting to laugh as he realised the monster that had bitten and turned him, was finally dead. Both Sirius and the twins hugged the man as tears of relief rolled down his cheeks.

This was what Severus walked in on. "Did I miss anything?" He asked after a few seconds. "Greyback is dead." Harry said, his voice muffled from where his face was smushed between his uncle and Severus immediately smiled in answer. "That explains it, but we really have to go. Ragnok expects us in ten minutes." He said.The twins nodded and pulled themselves from the hug with effort and followed him out after saying goodbye to their uncles. 

A few minutes later, the Snape family was at Gringotts, meeting with Ragnok and Lucius Malfoy, who was their proxy in the Wizengamot. Their (forced) participation to the Triwizard Tournament last year had emancipated the twins, meaning that they could take up their lordship and ladyship rings. Apart from the Liesmith ring, who would only accept Helena at seventeen. Lucius would still stay their proxy for now, but they could take up their seats anytime. Ragnok congratulated them as their rings accepted them. "Now that we're here, have you thought of another motion for the next meeting?" Lucius asked. 

"I have one: a magical orphanage for abused children. We all know what our relatives tried to do. How many other guardians do you think try to do the same? How many catholic parents think their muggleborn child is possessed by the devil and try to "drive him out", possibly killing the child in the process or worse: force the child to suppress their powers. We know what happens with those children. They don't live past the age of ten." She said seriously

Everyone fell silent, never having thought of that. "There are some small vaults for children of school age, who never came back to collect it." Ragnok said solemnly and Severus put his hands on his children's shoulders and they both covered his hands with their own. "We really need something like that." Lucius murmured. The meeting quickly wrapped up after that, but not before the twins donated their prize money and some more to a new vault. 

A few days later, three Weasleys were nervously sitting in two different rooms. Fred and George were in their best robes as they waited in another office. The day before, they had gotten a letter from the goblins to meet with them. They had no idea why, but they would soon find out as a goblin walked in. "Good morning, Mr and Mr. Weasley. I am Gnartooth, your newly appointed vault manager." He said, really confusing the twins. "I'm really sorry sir, but we don't have a vault. Apart from our family vault." George spoke up hesitantly. 

Gnartooth gave them a vicious grin. "Until a few days ago, that was true, but one of our other clients opened a vault in your name and put two thousand galleons in it." He told them and both twins felt their jaw drop. Their dreams of opening a joke shop suddenly became a lot more realistic. "Who on earth would donate so much money to us?" Fred asked. "The client only told me to tell you to make the Marauders proud." Gnartooth told them. 

Fred and George immediately shared a look, now knowing exactly who had donated the money. "Harry and Helena. Are they insane? Can they miss so much money?" They asked. "I'm sure that the lord Gryffindor-Slytherin-Peverell-Emerys and the lady Ravenclaw-Hufflepuf-Le Fay will be able to miss some money." Gnartooth answered, having gotten permission to reveal that little tidbit and Fred and George could feel their jaws fall even more.

"I'm sorry sir. Could you repeat those titles." George asked and Gnartooth grinned. In another part of Gringotts, a nervous Bill Weasley was sitting with his boss another goblin named Boldjaw. The goblin had written to him that they had possibly found his soulmate and that she wanted to meet him, hence the nerves. There was a knock on the door and another goblin walked in with four people following. One of them was the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen. He politely stood up and held out his hand, introducing himself.

The older man and woman went first, looking him up and down critically. Knowing that this could possibly be a very important meeting, Bill had done his best to make himself at least a bit more presentable, although he had refused to cut his hair. It wasn't until the oldest daughter gave him her hand to introduce herself that his mark warmed up and glowed a bit. The girl immediately beamed at him.

"They were right. You really are my soulmate." She said, a French accent clear in her voice. "Uhm, they?" Bill asked nervously. "Harry and Helena Snape. They recognised my mark from when they met you." Fleur told him, before the youngest girl introduced herself. They were allowed to leave and walked out of the bank. As he slowly got to know his soulmate, Bill reminded himself to thank the twins next time he saw them. 

Back at Peverell manor, Severus, Sirius and Remus were reluctantly preparing themselves. They had gotten an "invitation" (order) to meet with Dumbledore and the "old crowd," meaning the order of the Phoenix. They had sighed at the old fool's stubbornness, but at least they could use this to spy on Dumbledore for Tom and give the old man absolutely rubbish news about the "dark lord". Harry and Helena were safely at the Malfoys as the three men still didn't want them completely alone at the manor, even if Winky, Dobby and Kreacher would keep an eye out on them

"Great, now we have to deal with all of those idiots in the same room. I'd rather go back to Azkaban." Sirius muttered darkly, before stepping into the floo and disappearing. They had decided to enter at different times as almost no one knew that they lived in the same house. Remus soon followed and Severus called Winky. "Call me if anything happens, understood?" He asked and she nodded. He nodded back, before disappearing as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small chapter, but an easy beginning. 
> 
> The orphanage idea came from one of my favourite bashing stories "Let's try again" by Daydreamer315
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	2. The order of the Phoenix

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Stepping out of the floo in the headmaster's office, Severus noticed that it was already packed. Several old faces like the Weasley family and others were there, but so were two aurors: Sirius' second cousin Nymphadora or "Tonks" as she preferred to be called and Kingsley Shacklebolt. This didn't surprise them as Amelia had already written to them. The three men weren't the only spies in the order as Kingsley and Tonks would report back to Amelia.

Now, Tonks wasn't the most graceful of people, but her mental shields were incredibly strong and she knew how to deflect a mental attack. Amelia had been very thorough in choosing her spies. Once everyone was there, Dumbledore finally opened the meeting. "Good morning, everyone. I know that many of you don't have much time so let's get down to business." The old man began. "To defeat the huns." Sirius muttered underneath his breath and Remus tried desperately not to snort out loud.

A couple of days ago, they had gone to the muggle cinema to watch the latest Disney movie about a Chinese girl joining the army to save her father. It had resulted in an odd, but interesting discussion if the girl, Mulan, fitted in the same category as Snow White and Cinderella. "I'm afraid to tell you all that Lord Voldemort has returned." Dumbledore said gravely and there were several gasps and flinches.

"How can you be so certain?" Kingsley asked. "Harry and Helena told me." The old man lied. "Did they now? When did they do that exactly? It can't have been right after the third task where they swore that the only thing that happened was that the portkey dropped them next to Hagrid's house." Severus said. He refused to let the old goat pull his children into this. "I have to agree with Sni.... Severus." Sirius started 

"Harry and Helena didn't say anything about You-know-who being back and I don't understand why you claim that they did." He continued. "Then why did it take so long for them to return?" Molly Weasley asked smugly. "I don't know how long it's been since you've been here, Molly, but the house is quite a bit away from the quidditch pitch" Severus said like he was speaking to a child. "Harry did say that if it hadn't been for Helena remembering they could call one of the house-elves to bring them their brooms, it would have taken them even longer to return." Remus agreed

Mrs. Weasley glared at Severus, who just stared back expressionless. "Nevertheless, we should be prepared. Severus, can you go and talk to your old friends and get information?" Dumbledore interrupted. "Oh yes, because my "old friends" will be happy to see me after I adopted the children responsible for their master's downfall and fighting them at the cup." Severus replied, his voice oozing with sarcasm, before he glared.

"Forget it, Albus. The only one I still have contact with is Lucius and he's as much in the dark as I am, since Draco is friends with the twins." He continued. Every word was a straight-up lie, but Dumbledore didn't know that. "Surely, you can try something." Mrs. Weasley scoffed. "I am _not_ risking my life for you when I have two children counting on me. If you're so certain I can do it, why don't you try it yourself?" Severus hissed.

He of course wouldn't be in danger as Tom was on their side, but he still hated the fact that the idiots would easily sacrifice him for their own sake and to get to his children. He had made several precautions to make sure his his children would be safe in case anything did happen and this time, the goblins would make sure that they _would_ be carried out. "Clearly, this is not going anywhere. Severus will not return to his former comrades and that is final." Minerva spoke up, seeing that molly was about to explode.

The man nodded at her in gratitude. They may not always seem eye-to-eye, but Lily was one of Minerva's favourite students and she'd do her best to protect her children. She wasn't about to make them orphans once again after they had been left at the Dursleys. Dumbledore glared at her, but she didn't back down. Finally giving up for now, he changed the subject. 

"As you can see, my office is a bit too small to fit all of us and Hogwarts won't allow me to do extension charms, so we need a headquarters. Sirius, my boy. I think your home at Grimmauld place would be perfect." He said. "Excuse me?" Sirius asked. While he actually lived with Harry, Helena, Severus and Remus, even if he and Remus were planning to live somewhere else as a couple, he still didn't want the idiots in his childhood home. 

"Well, it has enough space, it's right in the middle of London and people can stay overnight in the spare rooms when they have an early or late mission. Not to mention the Black library will really help us fight Voldemort and his forces." Dumbledore reasoned. "And who exactly are you to suggest that I just open my home to several strangers?" Sirius asked and Dumbledore stared at him. "How dare you question him?! Apologise at once!" Mrs. Weasley screeched, but she was silenced by her own husband. 

"I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Leader of the light." Dumbledore stated, puffing his chest out. "I don't care if you were bloody Merlin. I am not opening Grimmauld Place for you and for a war that's not even real. It's _my_ house. Not yours and I believe my godson and his sister. If they say nothing happened, then I believe them." Sirius growled.

Dumbledore glared at them, before dismissing the order for now and telling them to stay on their guard. "Severus, please stay behind." He called over the murmur and Severus groaned. Almost everyone left through the door or floo, but him, Sirius and Remus. "Sirius, Remus. I just need Severus for this. Thank you." Dumbledore said through clenched teeth.

"Yes, but usually when you keep Severus back, it's about our God children, so don't mind if we stay back as well." Remus said with a tight smile, his eyes turning slightly amber and Dumbledore swallowed as he remembered that the time of the full moon was very soon. Turning to Severus, he spoke up. "As you know, your children are turning fifteen in a few weeks." He started, ignoring Sirius' mutter of "what did we say?" Severus raised an eyebrow. "Yes, so?" He asked, wanting to go home already.

"Years ago, I made several precautions to make sure your children would be safe and happy, only to go to Gringotts a few days ago and seeing that you destroyed those precautions." Dumbledore continued, giving him the most disappointed look he could master. Severus rolled his eyes. "You mean the illegal marriage contracts that I, as their rightful guardian, declared null and void?" He asked.

He barely hid a smirk at seeing Dumbledore fume at the reminder that _he_ was his children's guardian. "Yes, those. Why did you destroy them? Your children would be most happy with young Ronald and Ginerva." He said. "You're joking, right?" Was asked by three different voices. "Albus, they can't stand those two." Remus said. "I'm sure that they'd come to love them given time." Dumbledore insisted. 

"Even if you gave them all the time in the world, it would never happen. Forget it, Albus. I'm not bringing those contracts back. Even if my children don't get their marks, I will let them marry with those they want to marry and no one else. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to brew some deadly poisons for my daughter's future boyfriend." Severus said, before standing up, walking towards the floo and disappearing. He knew if he stayed a minute more, he would kill the bastard. Remus quickly followed him, but Sirius stayed behind. 

"You know, it's actually kinda funny. The more you try to control Harry and Helena, the more you push them away." He said. "Sirius." Dumbledore started, but the man interrupted him. "Don't even start, Albus Dumbledore. You could've kept me out of Azkaban, but you didn't. Because of you, I failed to protect the twins, but no more." Sirius growled, before disappearing into the flames. He heard something smash against the office wall as he disappeared and smirked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this takes place in 1995 and Mulan came out in 1998, but I really couldn't help myself.
> 
> I was thinking of giving someone a familiar as well. What do you think? 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	3. A meeting and two familiars

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

A few weeks after that, Lucius put forth both the motion for the magical orphanage as well as a new history of magic teacher, which had been Harry's idea as he was, quite ironically, tired of falling asleep in class. Dumbledore tried to protest that they couldn't take children away from "loving" families, but Lucius simply showed them statistics of how many children had died because of abuse in the past ten years alone.

The dark and light section of the Wizengamot differed on many things, but almost everyone agreed that something had to change and approved the motion. When they started to talk about who should head the new orphanage, Lucius revealed that he had already done some research about this and had picked a man and a woman specialised in treating abuse. They were both muggleborn, who had been unable to find work in the wizarding world because of bigotry. The woman's name was Helen McCrory and the man's name was Jason Isaacs.

They were approved and just to spite Dumbledore, Sirius offered one of the Black's empty manors for the orphanage to be put in. It had at least ten bedrooms and it they needed more, Kreacher would transform other rooms into bedrooms or expand the manor. Both motions for the orphanage and the new teacher were approved, which led to Fudge revealing that his closest follower, Delores Umbridge would be the new Defence teacher. 

Sirius and Lucius shared a look at that. They already knew that the twins were not going to like the woman. Dumbledore had directed the ministry's anger at him and the students were going to pay for that. They thanked Merlin that the twins had done an official interview about the tournament with an actual good reporter and told her what had really happened according to them after Dumbledore had tried to drag them into it. 

The public believed them and the prophet continued to drag Dumbledore's name through the mud, leaving the twins alone. It also helped that everyone knew that Lucius knew the twins and for which seats he was proxy. It was incredible that no one had figured it out yet, but then again, Severus had done his best to keep his children out of the limelight as much as possible over the past years. One of the last notions was that another seat had been become active, but had been magically sealed on order of the lord or lady. 

This meant that no one would know which seat it was, until the lord or lady revealed themselves. Muttering was heard all around the chamber, many trying to see which seat it was, but unable to figure it out. Soon after that, the session was closed. After unsuccessfully trying to convince Sirius to open his parental house for the order once again, Dumbledore left in a furious huff. A toddler would be jealous of it. 

A few days later, a very excited Helena and Harry were patiently waiting in front of the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley with their father for Padma and Parvati to arrive as well. The two girls had been in Bulgaria with their parents to discuss a marriage contract between Padma and Viktor and had only returned the day before. The twins, but especially Helena wanted to know every single detail of the visit. 

Hearing their names being called, they looked up with smiles to see the identical girls run towards them. Padma was practically glowing in happiness as she hugged her best friend as tightly as she could. Helena's keen eyes immediately noticed a ring on Padma's finger that hadn't been there before. "He proposed already?" She asked jokingly. "No. It's tradition for the women in the Krum family to get three rings from their intended: a promise ring, an engagement ring and of course, a wedding ring. This is the promise ring" Padma explained.

Harry and Helena both made sounds of understanding as the adults were talking. Padma sighed deeply. "It will be weird not seeing him everyday." She muttered. "You'll see him again soon enough. Is he coming for Christmas?" Helena asked and her best friend shook her head. "He'll be on vacation with only his family then." She answered. "Bugger." Helena muttered and she wholeheartedly agreed.

"How's that friend of yours? Tom?" Padma asked, not having told her sister and parents that "Voldemort" actually was back and that she had known about it. "He's good, last thing we heard. He's keeping himself low after his sickbed. We haven't seen him in a while." Helena smile. "Who's Tom?" Parvati asked. "He's a family friend. He's been sick for a long while, but he's better now." Helena said, mostly telling the truth. 

"Oh, that's good." Parvati said with a smile. After a few minutes and once the excitement of seeing their friends had ebbed away, both Parvati and Padma looked a bit confused and uncomfortable. "Are you alright?" Harry asked in concern. "I'm not really sure. I feel like something's...." Padma started, before trailing off. "Like something's calling you?" Helena asked with a growing smile. "Exactly." Both girls answered and Harry and Helena shared a knowing look."What's going on there?" Severus asked, seeing the smirks on their faces."I think Padma and Parvati are feeling the calls of their familiars." Harry answered

Five pairs of eyes widened. "You really think so?" Parvati asked and the twins nodded. "We felt the same when we met these two." Helena told them, looking at the miniature Pegasus on her shoulder, ignoring Parvati staring for now. Paying for their ice creams, they were on their way. Sure enough, they soon walked towards the same shop as the Snape twins had two-and-a-half years ago. 

This time, it was Cate behind the shop's counter and she immediately smiled at seeing Harry and Helena. "Why, if it isn't the Twins-Who-Lived. How are your Pegasus and Occamy?" She asked and Parvati looked at the Snape twins with the look of someone figuring something out. "Merlin's beard. They're not toys." She breathed, looking down at Aurora and Cayden. The Snape twins smiled and agreed. 

"Hey Cate. Our friends Padma and Parvati felt the call." Helena said. "Another set of twins? Wait until Dan hears about this." Cate said with a laugh, just as the man himself walked in. "Hears about what? Oh, hello Harry and Helena." The man greeted with a smile as he put down a big wooden crate. and they waved at them. "We have another set of twins feeling their magic call." Cate told her husband. "Really? How extraordinary." Dan said, but Padma had stopped paying attention as she focused on the wooden crate that Dan had carried in.

"Uh, Ms. I wouldn't come close if I were you." Dan said cautiously as Padma approached the crate. "Padma?" Helena asked. The girl briefly looked up at her, before putting her hand on the crate. "My familiar is in this. I can feel it." She said and Cate and Dan shared a look. "Are you absolutely sure? The animal inside this crate is not your ordinary house pet." Cate warned. "Exactly what is in this crate?" Mrs. Patil asked in worry.

Padma pushed a bit of her magic into the crate and scratching sounds were heard as the animal inside tried to get to her. "Everyone, but Padma get back." Cate warned and everyone backed up. The couple carefully opened the crate and Padma peeked in. What seemed like a cougar cub was inside. Padma slowly reached in and the cub sniffed her fingers, before pushing its head against her hand. "Unbelievable." Cate muttered as Padma got the cub out of the crate.

"A cougar?" Parvati asked as she slowly got closer. "That's not a cougar." Helena breathed as she looked at the paws of the animal. Her brother, father, friend and friend's parents followed her gaze and stared as well. The cub had six paws. There was only one creature that looked like a cougar, but had six paws. "A wampus." Mr. Patil breathed, his wife grabbing his arm at seeing their daughter hold one of the most dangerous creatures in existence. Padma was scratching its neck."Okay. I'm going to have to tell my great-uncle Newt that the Wampus is not going home." Dan muttered.

"Newt? As in Newt Scamander?" Severus asked and Dan nodded. "My mum is his niece. Still, he's not going to believe this." He said as Cate lead Parvati around, trying to see where her magic would lead her. Parvati walked towards a seemingly empty perch, her magic pulling her to it. "Is there something here?" Parvati asked Cate. Just as she asked it, there was a small chirp and a small chick peeped its head out from a dark pile on the bottom of the perch.

"It's a fairly new arrival. Only rescued it a few weeks ago from some smugglers." Cate told her as Parvati carefully lifted it up. "Well, at least this one doesn't seem dangerous." Mrs. Patil said as she had followed her daughter. "What is it?" Parvati asked with a confused look. "Can't you guess?" Cate asked with a giant smile on her face. Parvati slowly looked between the chick and the pile of ash on the bottom perch and it finally hit her. "Oh my goodness." She breathed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to give Parvati a familiar too as otherwise, Padma would get everything. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	4. Birthdays and truths

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Not long after the Patil twins found their familiars, it was time for the birthday of the Snape twins, having celebrated Neville's birthday the day before. On her birthday, Helena woke up feeling that her right wrist was warmer than the rest of her. Looking down, she immediately smiled at seeing Caspian's name painlessly written in her skin.

"We'll see each other soon, Caspian. I just know it." She whispered, gently caressing her new soulmark. Getting up, she stretched and smiled at hearing a scratching sound behind her closed door. This was probably the last birthday with Padfoot and Moony living with them, so she was going to enjoy it. "Come in, Padfoot." She called. The door opened and the huge, black dog carefully entered the room. It seemed that he still remembered that one Christmas where she sent water in his face or snout.

"Hello, Paddy." She greeted, scratching the dog behind his ears. She remembered thinking it really weird to scratch her uncle behind his ears, but she got used to it. Besides, she and Harry wanted to start training to become animagi as well. Their father told them that he wouldn't allow them to start training until next summer and they reluctantly agreed. 

Padfoot wagged his tail, before sniffing at Helena's clearly visible mark. Helena smiled at it. "Thank Merlin Caspian doesn't go to this school. Weasley and Dumbledore would never leave him alone." She muttered and Padfoot let out an agreeing huff. As was tradition by now, the twins, Severus, Sirius and Remus were at Black island. 

Helena was the first one down after nudging Padfoot out of the room, so she could change. Severus immediately smiled at her. "Happy birthday, my little raven." He said, pulling her into a hug. "Thank you, daddy." Helena replied, hugging him back. Even after five years of living with a loving family, she still couldn't get enough of the hugs he and her uncles gave her. A sleepy Harry stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his face where his immature godfather had licked him awake after refusing to respond to shakes.

"I still don't understand how you're never late for class if you like to sleep this much." Helena said teasingly as she hugged Remus and Harry glared at her. "Cayden usually wakes me up for school, but even he decided to sleep in today. Harry muttered as he hugged his father and other uncle. Helena simply laughed as she got ready to open presents. 

During the afternoon, friends came by for the birthday party and this time, it included the Weasley twins. Fred and George had told their family that they would be at Lee Jordan's house all day, only to secretly floo to Gringotts from their friend's and floo to Black Island from there. The Jordans wouldn't say anything to the other Weasleys, except for Bill who would come later with Fleur. Cedric couldn't come, but sent his wishes

The older twins immediately pulled Harry and Helena aside and asked what in the world they were thinking. "You two deserve it. As your new account manager might have told you, we've got gold enough to live comfortably for the next few centuries. We won't miss it." Helena told them calmly, just as the Patil twins arrived with their familiars. Everyone, but the Snape twins and Severus stared at the Wampus in Padma's arms and the young Phoenix sitting on Parvati's shoulder as they stepped out of the floo.

"Merlin's beard. You really weren't joking." Remus breathed. The Wampus immediately growled at him, already smelling the wolf underneath the man. "Hush, Artemis. He's a friend. Everyone here is a friend." Padma gently scolded the animal and the Wampus immediately settled down after that. "Artemis, huh? Nice." Helena commented, kneeling down next to the growing animal and letting it sniff her fingers.

Artemis recognised her from the day in the shop and let herself be petted by her. "It really is an actual Wampus." Draco whispered as the others still had to get over the shock. "Hey and what do you think of my familiar?" Parvati asked, tilting her head to really show her Phoenix Kenna. "Why is everyone getting awesome familiars. I want one too." Draco whined and everyone laughed, before the teens and young adults got together in Harry's room. 

They had made a promise not to show their soulmarks to each other, until everyone had theirs, if they did. Now that Harry and Helena had gotten theirs, they all stood around in a circle and rolled up their sleeves. Padma's soulmate was obviously Viktor. Parvati's soulmate was her housemate Dean Thomas. Neville's soulmate was a Hufflepuff girl named Hannah Abbott and Draco's was Daphne Greengrass. Everyone smiled at seeing Luna's name on Harry's wrist, but frowned at seeing Helena's mark. 

"Caspian X?" Doesn't he have a last name?" Padma asked in confusion. "Not really. The X stands for that he's the tenth of his name. They don't do last names where he comes from." Helena explained. She and Harry had agreed that it was time to tell their friends about Narnia, the redheaded twins sat down as Draco spoke up. "Where does this Caspian live anyway?" The blond boy asked.

"Narnia." Harry and Helena chorused. "Never heard of Narnia before." Neville said in confusion. "I would've been very surprised if you did. It's in another world." Helena told them. Some of their friends started to laugh, before realising that they were serious. "Wait, you went to a different world?" Padma asked, Artemis lying in her lap. 

The Snape twins nodded. "Wicked." Fred and George muttered and Helena grinned. "Things can never be simple with you, can they?" Padma asked. "Nope." Harry replied, before the twins told their friends the true story about what happened several summers ago. "So, that's why Helena was so sad a few years ago." Neville said after they had finished the first story and Helena nodded. As weird as it sounds, I had just been ripped from my daughter and it hurt like hell." She muttered, looking down for a second. Looking back up, she and Harry continued with the story about their second visit.

Everyone's jaw fell at hearing that Jade was still alive after so many years, chuckled at hearing about Caspian's face at hearing Helena's name, gasped at hearing about the failed attack on the castle and again at hearing about Jade's true identity. "Wait, your daughter was the same woman who turned the entire kingdom into ice?" Parvati asked. "Well, she was the reincarnation, but yeah." Helena answered, before continuing.

"So, what now?" Padma asked once they were finished, all of them believing the twins after seeing their expressions and knowing that they wouldn't lie about this. "I have no idea." Helena answered with a grim look, before they went back downstairs to swim. Bill and Fleur joined them after a few hours and thanked the twins for bringing them together. For the rest of the day, the twins forgot any problem that was waiting for them. Today, they were just the birthday boy and girl. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently Kenna means "born of fire." Could be wrong, but it seemed like a no-brainer really. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	5. New teachers

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Unfortunately for the twins as they arrived on the platform with Remus the Patil family, Granger was back and considering the glares she gave Padma, she very clearly blamed her for what happened last year, even though it was her own damn fault. Artemis growled from her enclosed rush basket. "It's alright, Artemis. I can handle her. Besides, we might get to use those eyes of yours." She whispered and Artemis purred in answer.

Wampus cats had eyes capable of hypnosis and that might just work in their favour. Padma had written a letter to Hagrid with the question if Artemis could stay with him as she wouldn't stay small forever and her parents didn't want a six legged, deadly cougar in their home without Padma there as well. Hagrid had agreed, not knowing exactly what kind of animal Artemis was. Padma wanted to surprise him. Dumbledore wanted to send him to a giant colony far away, but for the first time ever, he had refused to listen to the old man. 

_"If ye say that nothing happened, apart from that incident with Moody, then I believe ye."_ He had written to the twins a few weeks ago and they had smiled at that. After hugging their parents and uncle, they tried to enter the train, but the idiots stopped them. "I bet you really enjoyed my humiliation." Granger hissed. "We did actually, yes." Harry said. Granger glared at them, before Ginny tried to get Harry's attention. "So, Harry. Have you gotten your soulmark?" She asked.

"I have." Harry said shortly, surprising the annoying girl as Dumbledore hadn't told them about the broken contracts, convinced that he could fix it. "Oh, Uh, who is your soulmate?" She asked with a smile. It had to be her. She would be the perfect wife for Harry. "Definitely not you. That's for sure." Harry answered snidely, sounding quite a lot like his father and Ginny reared back. "What?! Why not?! We would be perfect for each other." She almost shouted.

"Well, that's not exactly yours to decide, now is it?" Helena asked sarcastically. "Who is your soulmate, Helena?" Weasley asked with what he considered a seductive smile. "A boy named "Nonya."" Helena replied. "Who's "Nonya?"" The idiots asked."None of ya business." Helena replied, before Padma had enough and shook her basket slightly. "What do you have there?" Granger asked rudely. "A new pet. Wanna see?" Padma asked cheerfully, holding up the basket. The three idiots all peered into the basket, right into the hypnotic eyes of Artemis.

"Leave us alone!" Padma ordered and as one, the idiots turned and walked away. "Are you sure Artemis can't stay with us?" Helena asked with a laugh as they could finally sit down in a compartment and Helena threw up the cloaking spell. Padma made a face."I don't think the parents will be really happy when they learn a magical creature class XXXXX is walking amongst their children." She said

"Professor Flitwick and professor Snape already know about her as does Hagrid in a way, but that's all who need to know for now. I'm not letting Dumbledore take my familiar away." She continued protectively and the twins nodded in understanding. "Well, Artemis will have to hide during classes. Can't have our new defence teacher find out about her and blame it on Hagrid." Harry said darkly.

Ever since Umbridge had tried to make a law that would restrict werewolves almost criminally, the twins had a growing dislike for her. Having heard about her hate for anything that was half-something, they feared for Hagrid. The man was harmless and the twins liked him. They would do their best to help him as much as they could anonymously as the lord Gryffindor-Slytherin and lady Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff. "Don't worry, Artemis knows to stay out of sight and that she's not to attack any creature that she sees. Unless it attacks her first Padma said. 

"You may want to ask Hagrid to tell the centaurs about her though, before they'll try to attack her." Harry warned and she nodded as the train left and their friends joined them. The train ride was once again peaceful, apart from the countless times the three idiots walked by. "Is it always this bad?" Parvati asked as this was her first time in the twins compartment. "Worse." Everyone said at the same time.

"Great." She muttered, before changing the subject. Kenna was home as she didn't want to brag about the fact that she had a Phoenix. "How's that friend of yours? Tom, if I remember correctly." She said. "As far as we know, he's good. We haven't seen him since the start of summer. We've written a few times, but we actually haven't seen him personally in quite a while." Helena answered with a thoughtful face and everyone nodded as the train rode on.

Arriving at the station in Hogsmeade, Padma called Winky on Helena's suggestion, asking her to take Artemis to her and Helena's dorm and she listened, popping away with the basket and both their stuff. "Typical Winky. Does more than what you ask of her." Harry said with a chuckle, holding Luna's hand and everyone laughed as well as they stepped out of the train and into the carriages that were waiting for them. Riding towards the castle, they talked about what this year would bring them and especially the O. W. L exams at the end of the year. 

Arriving at Hogwarts, they quickly walked in and towards the Great Hall. For a second, Helena thought that it looked a lot more empty, before remembering that the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were gone and seeing Padma taking a deep breath, she knew that she had noticed it as well. Rubbing her back, the three girls sat down at the Ravenclaw table. The others went to their own. 

After the new students were sorted and the feast had been served, Dumbledore announced the two new teachers. The new History teacher was a blond man named Timothy Eldir and of course, Umbridge as the defence teacher. Helena immediately didn't like either of them. Mr. Eldir had a coldness in his face and he sneered at the students, but it seemed that he sneered mostly to her and Harry. And Umbridge was... well.... Umbridge 

Interrupting him, the woman gave a speech that said that the ministry would keep a close eye on Hogwarts. Helena's eyes immediately narrowed to slits. "We'll see about that." She whispered underneath her breath, before they went to their tower. As it was a Friday, they had two more days before school actually began. The next day, early in the morning, Padma, Luna and Helena walked down the grounds to Hagrid's house, Padma holding the basket with Artemis. The man's dog Fang happily greeted them and Artemis growled from her basket. 

"Hush, Artemis. It's just a dog. You'll have to share space this year and the coming two years until I graduate, so be nice." Padma gently scolded her familiar and Artemis grumbled, before settling down. "Ah, Padma! There ye are. Come to see me immediately, eh?" Hagrid asked with a friendly smile as he got out of his house. Padma nodded with a smile, before the half-giant gleefully rubbed his hands. "Now then, let me see your familiar." He said. 

"I'll have to warn you that she doesn't easily like people and that you might warn the centaurs about her." Padma advised as put the basket on the ground and opened the door. Hagrid nodded, before really getting a look at Artemis as the Wampus walked out. "Merlin's beard!" He gasped at seeing the six legged cougar. Artemis looked him up-and-down, realising that this was the person who would take care of her for the next few months.

Padma, Luna and Helena stayed with Hagrid until lunch to make Artemis more comfortable around the man and Padma gave the man a parchment with instructions, telling him that either Dobby or Winky would provide the food for the Wampus. They said goodbye after that, Padma promising to come by that afternoon and the next day to see how the Wampus was settling in. She did exactly that, making sure that the idiots didn't see her. There was a small hiccup on Sunday when they started to walk to his house and Umbridge came out. 

"Ms Patil. Ms Snape. What are you doing here?" The toad-like woman asked in a simpering voice. "Visiting our friend?" Padma asked in return. "Oh, how sweet of you." Umbridge replied, although her tone clearly showed her scepticism about Hagrid having friends, before she walked away. Helena stuck out her tongue behind her back as Hagrid quickly invited them in and Helena pulled out the map to see if the woman wasn't secretly listening in. 

"Don't worry, Padma. She didn't see Artemis as she's actually hunting with the centaurs. Apparently, something is killing things in the forest and the centaurs can't kill it. They promised that if Artemis helps them and won't kill any innocent creatures, they'll allow her to come into the forest. Strangely enough, they only offered this agreement after I told them that Helena was your friend." Hagrid said with a confused frown. 

"Odd." Helena commented casually, before drinking her tea. Once they were walking away from the house, Padma looked at Helena with a raised eyebrow. Looking around to see if no one was watching, Helena showed her friend her rings. "Merlin's beard." Padma breathed, before looking at Helena. "You're full of surprises, aren't you?" She asked, having gotten used to strange things happening to them by now. Her friend grinned as she hid her rings again, before they almost ran into the new History professor. "Oh, sorry sir." Helena apologised.

"You better be. Just because you're a celebrity doesn't mean that we all have to jump out of the way for you." Professor Eldir sneered, before walking on. "What the bloody hell is his problem?" Padma asked incredulously as they watched him go and Helena shrugged. The rest of the day passed by quickly and Helena ignored the eyes watching her at dinner, almost certain that it was Dumbledore. After dinner, they went to their dorms and to bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read and review. See you next time


	6. Meeting a magizoologist

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The first week of school passed on in the blink of an eye. Everyone looked up in shock on Monday as a young looking Phoenix flashed into the great hall with letters for the Patil twins at the Ravenclaw table. "Couldn't have sent an owl?" Parvati asked as Kenna landed on her shoulder and started preening her hair. "I don't know why, but something tells me that Kenna wanted to bring the letters herself." Helena said.

Parvati simply gave her a look as she opened her letter. "Ms. Patil. May I ask what you're doing with my familiar?" Dumbledore asked loudly, thinking it was Fawkes who had flashed into the Great Hall and both girl and Phoenix immediately turned towards him and gave him a incredulous look. "This isn't your familiar, professor. She's my familiar, Kenna." She answered as the bird resumed preening her hair. Dumbledore widened his eyes and everyone whispered about this, before it was time for their first class

Luckily for the twins, Umbridge seemed to leave them alone for the moment, actually supporting them this one time against the three idiots when they tried to force the twins to tell everyone that "You-Know-Who" was back. Unfortunately, she only allowed them to read the most boring book of all times in class and didn't allow them to use their wands at all during the lessons.

"I can't believe that we're only supposed to read this year. We literally have O.W.Ls this year and we have to do a practical exam as well." Padma muttered softly as they walked through the halls. Helena made a face at her words and agreed with her."They probably think that Dumbledore is building an army." She replied and her friend scoffed."Well, considering how he has treated you in the past, I think that he believes it as well." She growled underneath her breath.

Helena could suddenly see exactly why her friend's familiar was a Wampus cat. Unfortunately for the twins and all the other students in the school, professor Eldir was an absolute jerk of an teacher. He was incredibly strict and you risked losing points if you so much as coughed. For some reason, he really seemed to have it out on the twins and especially Harry, asking them difficult questions out of nowhere and giving them only a few points when they answered correctly and taking a few points away if they failed to answer them.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he worked together with Dumbledore." Harry growled as he almost stomped out of their history class and Draco agreed with him. For the next week, Harry watched his version of the map, but as far as he saw, Dumbledore and Eldir were never together in one room. During the weekend, Helena and Padma walked down to Hagrid's house to check up on Artemis.

Padma, who had Care with Hagrid, had seen her a few times. Either she was peeking past the door of Hagrid's house or past a tree in the forbidden forest, keeping an eye on her, before disappearing in a flash. Padma had been very clear that if she was with other children, Artemis couldn't greet her.Arriving at the house, they saw that Hagrid had a visitor: an older man with a black and white coat on that was just a bit too big for him.

"Ah, Padma. Come to see Artemis again, eh? She's missed you." Hagrid said cheerfully as soon as he noticed them. Padma immediately smiled back at him. "I missed her too." She said, before asking where she was. "Last I saw her was over there at the forest edge." Hagrid said, pointing towards said forest"Who is Artemis?" The old man asked. "Her familiar, mr. Scamander. Found her last summer in the shop of your great-nephew." Hagrid said and the old man immediately nodded in understanding 

Padma went to find her familiar and Helena quickly stepped forwards to introduce herself. "Hello there. I'm Helena Snape and this is Aurora." She said cheerfully, nodding towards the miniature Pegasus and the man shook her hand with his left. "Newt Scamander. Pleasure to meet you, young lady and you as well Aurora." He said cheerfully and she smiled at him, before frowning just slightly and tilting her head.

Despite the man's initial cheerfulness, there was an emptiness in his eyes. Looking down at his hand, she saw a ring with a diamond, but nothing else. ' _Engaged, but never married.'_ Helena thought, just as Padma came back with the ever-growing Artemis at her heels. "Ah, so that's where the Wampus went." Newt said with a small laugh, kneeling down to the best of his abilities. Padma smiled at him. "Yes, sir. Sorry that she couldn't go home." She apologised.

"Well, as long as... Artemis is happy, then everything's alright." Newt said with a smile, before they went inside for tea. It was really warm in the hut and both Helena and Padma soon rolled up their sleeves, exposing Padma's soulmark as Helena had already hidden hers with a different cloaking spell. "Isn't that the famous quidditch player?" Newt suddenly asked at seeing Padma's mark.The girl smiled and nodded in answer. "You should've seen them last year when he was here. They were glued together." Helena stage-whispered

This earned her a glare from her friend as the older man chuckled. "Oh, I remember how that was. If an old magizoologist might give you a piece of advice?" He offered and Padma nodded. "Don't take a single moment for granted. There were so many moments I wished I had appreciated more after..." Newt trailed off with a sad look and Hagrid, Helena and Padma all gave him sympathetic looks, understanding what had happened. 

"May I ask what happened, sir?" Padma asked gently and a very uncharacteristic dark look entered the old man's face. "Grindelwald happened. My soulmate was the Director of Magical Security in America. Grindelwald impersonated him for several weeks and none of his colleagues noticed. By the time I came back and exposed him, it was too late and Percival... my Percival.... was dead." He said bitterly. 

Padma and Helena quickly sat down on either side of him and stroked his back. "I'm sorry, sir. I shouldn't have asked." Padma said guilty and he patted her hand. "It's okay, my dear girl. You didn't know. Honestly, the worst part was that we were just a few weeks away from our wedding." Newt said with tears in his eyes. It was clear that despite it happening several decades ago, it still hurt. "Just remember what I said, alright? Enjoy every moment with your soulmate as much as you could." He continued .

Padma nodded, before the man turned to Helena and told her that the same counted for her. She nodded, before quickly asking him about his many journeys and changing the subject. A couple of hours later, they left Hagrid's house, leaving Artemis behind. "That poor man. To be ripped away from your soulmate just before your own wedding. Did you know this?" Padma asked with a sad look on her face.

"I did notice an emptiness in his eyes and that he was only wearing an engagement ring, but I never would've guessed the story behind it. That big coat suddenly makes sense." Helena said solemnly and Padma gasped. "It had been his." She whispered as they walked into the castle. They both promised themselves not to tell anyone about what they had learned. 

In another part of Hogwarts, Timothy Eldir was writing on a piece of parchment. He stopped briefly at hearing something, before resuming like he hadn't heard anything. This week had been extremely tiring and it was just the beginning. Still, he had to push through if his plan was to succeed. He grinned at what his reward would be once it had succeeded and he _would_ succeed, he was certain of it. The plan had already started and he was in to win

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read and review. See you next time.


	7. A Phoenix investigation and a detention

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The next few weeks passed quick and the weather became colder and wetter. "Hey, is it me, or are Kenna's feathers growing darker?" Helena asked one day after said Phoenix had once again brought the mail and was sitting on Parvati's shoulder. Everyone immediately looked at the bird and had to admit that she was right. Where Kenna once had bright red plumage like a certain other bird, it was more darker and more Auburn now as she grew even more. 

Having met Fawkes a few times, Helena could also see that Kenna's shape was a bit different. She was smaller, but her chest was broader than the Hogwarts Phoenix. Padma looked down at her mail and a smile grew on her face at seeing one addressed as " _Angel."_ Helena peeked over her shoulder and smirked. I do wonder who sent that one." She said teasingly and Padma gave her a glare, before opening the letter and reading it. She smiled as her soulmate wrote about how much he missed her already and how he wished he could visit. 

Helena smiled at her friend's happiness, before excusing herself for a moment and walking out of the Hall, walking back in with a thick book in her arms just a few minutes later. "What's this?" Harry asked as she carefully put the old book down after making room. "I secretly asked one of the elves if any of the founders had a book about Phoenixes and Rowena Ravenclaw had one." Helena answered, before starting to read. 

"Oh, look what it says here. "Right after their burning days, a Phoenix will have a different colour than when they're grown-up again. There are multiple kinds of Phoenix and all are related to an element."" She told them, before going to the page about different kinds of Phoenix. "Let's see. "Ice Phoenix, starts off with a black plumage and ends with a white and silver plumage."" She read, looking at her friends. Parvati shook her head. 

"No, not an ice Phoenix. That's clear. "Water Phoenix, starts off with a dark blue plumage, ends with a light blue and white plumage." That's not it either. "Fire Phoenix. Is orange first, ends with red and gold." That's Fawkes. "Air Phoenix. Has white feathers first, later has grey and black." Nope. That's not.... hey. "Earth Phoenix. Starts off red, becomes dark brown and bronze."" Helena read out loud and everyone looked at Kenna. "I've got a earth Phoenix? Why didn't Dan and Cate tell us?" Parvati asked with a small frown and Helena shrugged in answer. 

"Maybe, they wanted you to find out yourself. It's not like they didn't know, they had Kenna for a few weeks before her burning day.... wow." Helena said after reading a certain part about the earth Phoenix. "What?!" Her entire group of friends asked. "Look what an earth Phoenix can do if threatened." She said, showing them the part. "Well..... I'm never pissing Kenna off." Commented a rather pale Neville and Kenna let out a trill that sounded like a laugh. 

Soon after that, it was time for the first class and Kenna disappeared after saying goodbye to Parvati. Draco and Harry rushed to history, knowing that Eldir hated latecomers. They were two of the first and quickly sat down at one side of the room. "Wonder how he will take points this time." Harry muttered to Draco and he agreed. Eldir quickly walked in and unfortunately, he was followed by Umbridge, who had recently started to inspect the classes.

Even though her classes were an absolute bore, the witch hadn't done anything to make the twins go against her.... yet. Eldir told them about a war between giants that happened hundreds of years ago. Umbridge tried several times to interrupt him by coughing and it seemed that Eldir had a new target to focus his ire on. "If you could please wait patiently for a few minutes and let me finish my lecture, madam Umbridge, then my attention will be all yours." He said. Umbridge finally fell silent at that and both Harry and Draco smirked. 

For once, they fully agreed with the man. Eldir ordered them to read the chapter about the war and Umbridge immediately started to interrogate him. "Tell me, Mr. Eldir. Where were you born? I couldn't find much about you." Umbridge asked and Harry knew that pretty much the entire class was listening. "I would find it odd if you did. I was put into an orphanage when I was very young and adopted by an American wizard, who homeschooled me." Eldir replied. 

Umbridge wrote this down. "And you're pureblood?" She asked. "Half." Eldir replied as he graded papers and Harry could hear some anger at that. Umbridge heard it too and immediately started asking questions in that direction. "Your biological parents?" She asked in a voice that she probably considered caring. "Both dead, but what does this have to do with history of magic?" Eldir asked, finally looking up at the woman. 

"Just some human interest. I thought it would be interesting to know your roots to really understand you." She answered, finding her unable to keep looking in those blue eyes. Shaking herself, she started asking questions about the subject and the class returned to their books. The only good thing about it was that Umbridge distracted Eldir enough that he didn't take a single point and let them go early. "Who knew the woman would be good for something." Harry muttered once they were out of earshot of them both and Draco snorted.

Helena wasn't so lucky and Eldir assigned her a detention that evening for accidentally knocking her empty ink vial to the ground. With a sigh, Helena knocked on the door of his office that evening. "Ah, Ms. Snape. There you are." Eldir said, putting a mirror down. ' _Great, another Lockhart.'_ Helena thought bitterly as she walked in and closed the door behind her. "What do you want me to do, sir?" She asked, barely keeping her voice polite. 

"Get a better attitude for one. The storage closet that belongs with this office is a complete mess. You need to clean it up without using magic. And I don't want to hear peep from you or that thing you always carry with you when not in class." Eldir sneered, looking at the miniature Aurora. Helena silently walked towards the storage closet, glad that the necessary items were at least already there.

"You know, considering your past, this should almost feel like home." Eldir said after several minutes and if looks could kill, he'd be dead ten times over as Helena and Aurora glared at him. Gritting her teeth, the teenage witch continued. It didn't take long, before she noticed something. Every time she'd finish cleaning a spot, it would be dirty again in a few minutes. She had just stacked a pile of spare quils on a shelf, before they all fell down again when she turned around. Looking at Eldir, she saw a smirk on his face and barely withheld a growl. 

She was so asking uncle Lucius if they could fire this man. She'd rather fall asleep with Binns than have a teacher like this. After several hours, things finally stayed clean and she could leave. She barely stopped herself from stomping like a child as she walked out of the office and straight to her father's office. "I hate Eldir!" She shouted as soon as she was allowed in and both her aunt and father jumped slightly as they had been talking. 

"What happened?" Severus asked, standing up and walking towards his daughter. Pulling her into a hug, he felt how tense she was "That... that absolute.... urgh!" Helena growled, so angry that she could barely speak. In her head, Aurora was planning different ways to poop on him. "Calm down, my little raven. You're not making any sense." Severus told her and she forcefully took a deep breath. 

Once she was a bit calmer, she told her father and aunt what had happened and what had been said. Both were extremely furious by the time that she had finished and once a more calm Helena had left, Severus went to the professor. Knocking on the door, he heard Eldir inviting him in. "Ah, Severus. The little princess immediately went whining to her daddy, did she? Should've seen that coming." Eldir commented and Severus' eyes spat fire. "I don't know where you come from, Eldir, but you do _not_ bring up my children's past like that." He growled. 

"Well, then maybe, you shouldn't have made it public. "Oh boo-hoo. The little spoiled prince and princess had to work. What a torture."" Eldir replied mockingly, not at all intimidated. "My children are _not_ spoiled, Eldir." Severus hissed. "No? They have a loving family, friends by the dozen, get everything they want. Isn't that the definition of spoiled?" Eldir asked and Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Is that why you're acting this way? Because you had a bad childhood? Well, grow up! My father was a drunk, who wasted every cent my mother earned. Not exactly a good example, but guess what? I got over it and made myself a better man than he ever was. I made myself a better father than he ever was. Do something like that again and I won't be afraid to take action." He said, before walking out. Behind him, Eldir smirked. "Duly noted." He said.

Over the next few days, Eldir kept himself neutral about the twins, but that didn't stop them or their friends from glaring at him whenever they could after Helena had told them what he had said. He found himself get pranked by either the Weasley twins and even Peeves several times and once came back to his office after a bathroom break to find horse turds on his desk. He simply raised an eyebrow at it. "Interesting." He murmured, before banishing the turds with a wave of his wand and continuing his work after that like nothing happened.

In the weekend, both twins relaxed as much as they could with the growing workload. "That Eldir really needs to be watched." Helena growled and her brother agreed with a nod. "Yeah. Luckily, we have a map that tells us where everyone is." He muttered, pulling out said map and Helena grinned, before shuffling closer and looking at the map. Finding where Eldir was, they shared a confused look. Looking back down, Harry spoke up.

"What is he doing in Myrtle's bathroom?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asshole....
> 
> I first decided to make Kenna a normal fire Phoenix like Fawkes, but after talking to one of my readers, I decided to change that, while still giving a reason for Dumbledore to confuse Kenna for "his" Phoenix in the last chapter
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	8. Operation "Time warp"

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

The next day, the twins went to Myrtle as well. "Hey, Myrtle? Was professor Eldir here yesterday?" Harry asked. "Oh yes. He's been talking to the ghosts of Hogwarts for one of his lessons. He was very charming and polite." The ghost girl said and both twins gave her a disbelieving look. "Are you sure we're talking about the same guy here? He's been nothing but an absolute arse to us." Helena muttered, not having forgotten his comment during detention. 

Myrtle giggled, but floated into her toilet. "Well, that was unhelpful." Harry murmured. "You think Halina could find out something?" Helena asked as she looked at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. "Already asked her to slither past his office after one of the elves had shrunk her a bit. Said she hadn't heard anything." Her brother answered. "Can't we just fire him? We have the rings." She asked softly. "Lena, students are already running behind, because of Dumbledore's refusal to hire a new teacher for the past several years. Eldir actually knows his stuff" Harry said. 

"We can't just fire him, because we hate him. It would just put the students behind even more." He continued as they walked. "So.. end of the year?" Helena asked and he nodded. "At most." He replied, before they fell silent. Harry pulled out his map. "I swear, ever since Padfoot and Moony updated our maps just before school, it's a lot slower to open." He muttered. "Mine too." Helena said as they walked on. 

In his office, Dumbledore was thinking deeply. Nothing seemed to go right for him. He knew that Voldemort was back, but he was keeping himself incredibly quiet and the twins didn't support his story. The old man growled as even he had been unable to find the man. What was he planning? Why had the twins not been been sent straight to the graveyard like he had ordered Andrew to do. He couldn't even ask the man as he had been mind-controlled.

The only really good thing was this whole, bloody situation was the new history professor he had been forced to hire Timothy Dominic Eldir. Dumbledore had absolutely no idea where the man had come from in the first place and had never heard of him before the man had applied for the job, but he had sensed a strong hatred for children that he had hoped he could use for his benefit. It actually worked quite as Eldir seemed to really hate the Snape twins in particular. He could use this and therefore had called the man to his office for his talk. 

"You wanted to see me, headmaster?" Eldir said, his attitude slightly reminding the old man of young Tom under compulsion potions and how Severus was supposed to be if he hadn't been cleansed by those wretched goblins. He shook his head to clear it. "Yes, my boy. Lemon drop?" He asked and the other man shook his head as he sat down. Dumbledore tried to look into his mind, but found extremely strong shields blocking his way. Pulling out, he smiled at the man.

"As you may have noticed, Timothy, the ministry of magic has been slandering my good name for telling everyone the truth about Voldemort returning." He said, noticing that the man didn't flinch, but this didn't really surprise him as the man had apparently been raised in America and therefore sadly didn't carry the same fear as everyone else did here "I've seen it, yes." Eldir replied with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"I know that he has returned, but Severus selfishly refuses to spy on him for some ridiculous reason or another." He said. "I want you to find him and get into his ranks instead." He ordered. Eldir raised both eyebrows at this and his lip twitched. "Let me get this straight, headmaster. You want me to find this Voldemort guy and spy on him?" He asked to be sure. "Exactly right, my boy. I need to find out where he is and what he's doing now. Severus refuses to do it and you seem to be the best next option." Dumbledore reasoned.

Eldir straightened his back with a thoughtful look on his face. "Can I think about it for a few days?" He asked and Dumbledore nodded. "Of course, my boy." The old man said, before dismissing him. A few days later, very early in the morning, Delores Umbridge was walking down the stairs to the Great Hall for breakfast with a self-satisfied look on her face.

Soon, she would be able to kick the terrible teachers out of this school and replace them with ministry approved ones. That filthy half giant and half goblin teaching charms would be the very first ones to go once she was ready or her names wasn't Delores Umbridge. The only hurdles in that plan were Dumbledore for now and Lucius Malfoy, who was supposedly sitting proxy for the heirs of the founders, whoever those were.

She was certain that the blood traitor had just bought his way to those seats. She had once respected him greatly as he had always helped Cornelius, but her respect had all but vanished in the past few years since he had let himself in with those despicable twins. He even didn't help them with that custody case. The twins could've been in ministry custody by now or with a good, well-respected family. Granted, the twins wisely agreed that You-know-who wasn't back, but they were way too influential.

Many would fall over to serve those two, while they should serve the Ministry. They were the ones who deserved the respect, not two teenagers. Oh well, no matter. It was Halloween and she remembered the great feast tonight. She went to go further, only to find her feet stuck to the floor. "What's this?" She asked out loud as she tried to break free. Her shouts and screams as she failed to get free, got the attention of many as students entered the entrance hall. 

Dumbledore walked over to try and help her, only to find himself unable to move either. Many of the staff faced the same problem, except for Hagrid, Severus and Filius. With a pop, Granger, Weasley and Weaselette joined them as well. "What's going on?! Why can't I move?! I demand to get free this instant!" Granger demanded. "How dare you treat me this way! I'm Harry Snape's soulmate and I deserve respect!" Weaselette screeched, sounding just like her mother.

"Let us go! We're missing breakfast!" Weasley shouted. In a dark corner, the Snape twins rolled their eyes. "Of course. That's the first thing on his mind. Get more food in his mouth." Helena muttered, before nodding at Harry. "Okay, house-elves ready?" He asked as Dobby popped in. "Ready and set, master Harry." Dobby squeaked, trying his best to be quiet and jumping up and down. "Alright, let's do this. Operation _Time Warp_ is a go." He said as he and Helena raised their wands and said a spell. 

The staff and idiots were still trying to get free when they heard a voice echoing through the hall. " _It's astounding. Time is fleeting."_ Everyone whispered amongst each other. Some of the muggleborns and muggle-raised got excited as they recognised it. The staff and idiots suddenly couldn't control their limbs as they started to dance on the music. _Madness takes its toll._ _But listen closely, n_ _ot for very much longer._ _I've got to keep control."_ The song continued

Some students started cheering as the song really began. _"I remember doing the time-warp, d_ _rinking the moments when t_ _he blackness would hit me._ _And the void would be calling._ _Let's do the time-warp again!_ _Let's do the time-warp again!"_ Another voice joined the invisible chorus. _I_ _t's just a jump to the left."_ It said and the staff and the idiots was forced to jump to the left. Some of the muggleborn and half-blood students willingly joined in.

" _And then a step to the right._ _With your hands on your hips._ _You bring your knees in tight."_ The song went on. Release us this instant!" Umbridge screeched as they were forced to follow the instructions of the song. In their corner, the twins were laughing even as they moved on the beat. Lots of students were laughing at seeing some of their most hated teachers and least likeable students being forced to dance on a nonsensical song from a muggle movie. Some other students joined in, trying to follow those who knew the moves

_"But it's the pelvic thrust, that really drives you insane._

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_It's so dreamy, oh fantasy free me_

_So you can't see me, no, not at all_

_In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention_

_Well-secluded, I see all_

_With a bit of a mind flip_

_You're into the time slip_

_And nothing can ever be the same_

_You're spaced out of sensation_

_Like you're under sedation_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_Well, I was walking down the street just a-having a think_

_When a snake of a guy give me an evil wink_

_He shook-a me up, he took me by surprise_

_He had a pickup truck, and the devil's eyes_

_He stared at me and I felt a change_

_Time meant nothing, never would again_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_It's just a jump to the left_

_And then a step to the right_

_With your hands on your hips_

_You bring your knees in tight_

_But it's the pelvic thrust_

_That really drives you insane_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

_Let's do the time-warp again!_

At the end, the idiots, staff and students, who knew the song, fell down. The students who didn't know the song, quickly followed their example resulting into a heap of lying people. "A shame we couldn't do the tap dancing bit or the pelvic thrust." Harry muttered, having seen the movie with at Colin's last summer. "Do you want to see Umbridge tap dance or see the goat throw his hips like that?" Helena asked and he quickly shook his head. 

The staff and students stood up under loud applause of the watching students. Most of the staff sighed in relief at being able to move again, but Umbridge stormed off, feeling humiliated. The twins shared a high-five as they secretly joined the other students. Dumbledore ordered several times for those responsible to show themselves, until Minerva stopped him. "Honestly Albus. It was just a lighthearted prank and no one got hurt. I for one, think it was a really creative one." She said, most of the staff agreeing. 

As everyone finally went to breakfast, some students asked Harry if Weaselette was his soulmate. "Never in a million years. My soulmate is the sweetest girl I know and I thank Merlin every day that I'm not stuck with that harpy." Was his consistent answer. This quickly spread amongst the students and everyone believed him. Weaselette was incensed, but neither the twins nor their friends cared as they went to eat 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On one hand, I really liked writing the prank. On the other hand, I really don't need to see Dumbledore and Umbridge do the "pelvic thrust" bit, so I made them do something else. You can imagine what they did instead for yourself
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	9. Idiots, meet Artemis. Artemis, meet the idiots

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Hermione Granger was not having a good year. Not only was she forced to repeat her fourth year because of that bitch Padma Patil, but everything seemed to go wrong for her ever since she set foot in the castle. Her food was always rotten and stale the moment she put it on her plate. Someone had placed a spell on her to make her deathly afraid of books, unless she was mismatching socks (that one may have been Dobby.)

To add insult to injury, that damned beaver was still there too and would chase her everytime she ventured past the lake and she had to dance to that ridiculous song while the whole school was watching. She was the future minister of magic. She wasn't supposed to be treated this way. When she found out who was responsible for it, she would make sure that they were expelled. She had tried to get Patil alone for several weeks now, but she was almost always with Helena. How dare she?! Helena was supposed to be their best friend, not hers! 

Seeing her walk down to Hagrid's house on her own during a Saturday, she took her chance and followed her with Ron and Ginny. Padma was almost at the house, when they caught up with her. "Hey Patil. We still have some unfinished business!" Granger said very loudly and Padma let out an audible, irritated sigh as she turned around. "Did we? I wasn't aware of that." She said sarcastically, subtly grabbing her wand. "It's your fault that I got expelled!" Granger shouted

Hagrid came out of his house without their notice. "No, it absolutely isn't. Viktor and I were just having a nice date, when you decided that you were entitled to break that up and demand that my soulmate broke up with me for you. We told you that it would never happen and turned around to leave _You_ chose to aim your wand at my back and fire a cutting curse at me. My soulmate jumped behind me and took the curse." Padma hissed.

"You're lucky that he was wearing a protection bracelet, or else the results would've been much worse for both him and you. Your curse may have paralysed him for the rest of his life, disqualifying him from not only the Tournament that was going on at the time, but also quidditch. _My_ soulmate, who's a famous quidditch player, got hurt because he protected me from a spell that _you_ cast. I really don't see where it's my fault that you got expelled." She continued and Granger glared at her, before pulling her wand and pointing it at the girl once again. 

It happened in a flash. She heard Hagrid's warning shout and saw a brown flash shoot towards her, faster than an arrow. The next thing she knew, she was on her back and two yellow eyes that she vaguely recognised from somewhere, were glaring at her as the growing beast on top of her growled for the attempted attack on her witch. "Artemis, come here!" Padma ordered, patting her leg. 

Artemis reluctantly got off Granger and went to Padma. Standing at her Witch's side, she growled loudly at the three idiots. "Why do you have a cougar?" Granger immediately demanded to know as she got up, not noticing the pale faces of her friends. "That's not a cougar." Ron whimpered as he tried not to pee his pants. "That's a wampus." Weaselette agreed as Artemis was still growling at them. 

"Why do you have such a dangerous beast?! You're not allowed to have something like this! You have to send it away." Granger immediately demanded. "Actually, you can bring another animal if it's your familiar. I checked." Padma told her calmly, stroking the fur of her familiar. Granger went to argue more, until Hagrid interrupted. "Enough! Hermione, Ron, Ginny. Ye clearly came here to bully Padma, even though she hasn't don anything to ye and her familiar protected her when ye were about to attack her." He told them sternly 

"It's better that ye go back to the school, or I'll tell professor Mcgonagall what ye tried to do. As it is, ten points from Gryffindor each." He continued. The idiots tried to protest, but he wouldn't listen. They finally walked away. "Thanks Hagrid." Padma muttered and he grinned. "No problem, Padma. Ye have to watch out though. I'm sure Dumbledore will order ye to get rid of Artemis soon enough and if not, then professor Umbridge will try it." He warned.

Sure enough, Padma got a note to meet with Dumbledore after dinner. At Helena's advice, she asked professor Flitwick and Hagrid to come with her and both agreed. When they arrived at the office, a smug Granger, Weasley and Weaselette as well as professor Mcgonagall and Umbridge were waiting for them with the headmaster. "Ms Patil, come in. Filius and Hagrid, you can leave." Dumbledore said. 

"Actually Albus, Ms Patil asked us both to be here as I'm her head of house and Hagrid witnessed the incident she suspects she's here for." Filius replied coolly. Having had to deal with his attempts to control the twins had dissolved his respect for the man into nothing. Umbridge didn't seem happy about both of them being here "Very well. Ms Patil. Is it true that you tried to send a dangerous animal on Ms Granger?" Dumbledore asked. "I didn't send anything on anyone. Granger tried to confront me on what happened last year." Padma said. 

"She tried to blame it all on me, even though she was the one who used the curse that sent my soulmate to the hospital wing. I stated exactly that and she didn't like it, so she resorted to violence like she does everytime things don't go the way she wants them to. Seeing this, my familiar Artemis quickly came to my defence and jumped on her. Granger wasn't hurt, wasn't scratched, wasn't bitten, so I wonder what she's whining about." She continued 

Granger and the others tried to protest, but professor Mcgonagall stopped them. "Nevertheless, you should've warned us that your familiar is such a dangerous animal. I'm afraid that Artemis has to go." Umbridge said with a smirk. "Actually, Ms Patil informed me as her head of house and she's made precautions to make sure that no one gets hurt by letting her stay with Hagrid, so I see no reason Artemis has to leave." Professor Flitwick said

Dumbledore and the three stooges tried to protest, until professor Mcgonagall came with the solution to watch the memory of the incident in the pensieve. She helped Padma get the specific memory from her head and put it into the pensieve. Dumbledore, Mcgonagall and Flitwick went in, while Hagrid and Umbridge kept an eye on the four students. Umbridge was very interested in what Padma had said about last year and was determined to find out more. She had heard about it of course, but now she was really interested.

Coming out of the pensieve, even Dumbledore had to admit defeat. It was clear that Granger had started it. They made a deal that if Artemis wouldn't hurt anyone, she'd be allowed to stay in the forest. As long as incidents like this didn't happen again, she was safe. It was clear that the only ones happy about that were Padma, Hagrid and professor Flitwick. The three stooges practically stomped down the stairs. 

"It's not fair! Why do the Patil twins get the cool familiars and boyfriends?" Weaselette whined as Parvati had started a relationship with Dean. Even though Ginny really wanted Harry, she had wanted to try dating Dean as a side thing as it was clear that the boy was growing into a handsome young man, but even that had been taken away from her. It just wasn't fair! She deserved to have a familiar too!

"I know, but I'm sure that they bought those animals somehow. There's no way, these animals are true familiars as those don't exist." Granger huffed. "They actually do, Hermione. There's no way that someone could afford a Phoenix and a Wampus, unless you were the richest person in the whole world and a wampus doesn't take orders from anyone, but this one clearly did." Weasley said, for once saying something clever. Granger huffed again. "How dare she accuse me of getting myself expelled." She growled, still angry

"Just you wait. When I'm minister of magic, she'll never be able to get a job anywhere." She continued with a smirk as they walked through the halls of Hogwarts. "You think that Harry's and Helena's toys are their familiars too?" Weasley suddenly asked and Weaselette scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous, Ron. Everyone knows Pegasus are extinct." She said. Silence fell over all three of them as they walked on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow...a whole chapter with zero Harry and almost zero Helena. Weird. 
> 
> Btw, I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I recently remembered that one of Newt's middle names is literally Artemis.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	10. Toads and talks

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

It was the end of November when Umbridge went too far. She had left the twins alone and they had done the same, apart from Halloween. While she had been putting in more and more rules, she hadn't actively done any harm yet and the twins couldn't find a good reason to fire her, until one day. Harry and Helena had been walking through the halls of Hogwarts when they heard someone crying.

Following the sound, they found Colin clutch his hand and crying in a alcove. Getting a bad sense of Deja-vu, Helena called his name and the boy looked up, immediately hiding his hand behind his back. "Colin, what's wrong?" Helena asked, kneeling down next to him. "I-I had detention with professor U-umbridge, because I w-was a bit loud in class and she m-made me write lines." He whimpered, showing them his hand. "I must not disrupt class." Was written in his hand in blood."A blood-quill?! That fucking bitch!" Helena hissed with venom in her voice

She quickly stood up. "Harry, go get professor Sprout and ask her to contact madam Bones. I'll take Colin to the hospital wing." She said. Harry nodded and ran off. Madame Pomfrey was furious when she saw the back of Colin's hand. "A blood quill!? That's the most barbaric thing I have ever seen. If Mr. Creevey doesn't press charges, I will." She growled underneath her breath as professor Sprout, Amelia Bones, Tonks and Kingsley walked in.

"What's going on? Harry told me that professor Umbridge had injured one of my students." Professor Sprout said. She was probably the most motherly of all the head of houses, even with Severus being an actual parent. Her concern quickly turned to fury when Colin explained what had happened. She wasn't the only one as Amelia's eyes flashed fire and Tonks' hair turned red in anger. 

Forcibly calming herself down by taking a deep breath, Amelia asked if Colin wanted to press charges and the boy nodded after she assured him that he wouldn't get into trouble if he did. In the meantime, harry had asked the ghosts and portraits if there were any other victims of Umbridge. There were four others, all muggleborn of whom parents wouldn't be able to do much. Harry reluctantly had to admit that the bitch thought about that, but she messed with the wrong boy. They may not have taken their seats yet, but this was _their_ school

They would not allow a torturer in their halls. Willing to go the official route for now as Amelia had already started an investigation, he wrote his uncle Lucius to tell him what was going on. He got his answer in the appearance of the entire board of governors storming into the Great Hall just a few days later, demanding to speak with both Dumbledore and Umbridge. They quickly went to the old man's office with them and the heads of houses. 

Umbridge was furious as those governors had the gall to question her on her actions. She was the right-hand woman of the minister of magic and she deserved respect! How did they even find out about it? She had purposefully chosen the useless muggleborn as they would have no idea how to contact them. Magic should only go to those pure of blood, not to those magic-stealers. They weren't even real witches and wizards. 

She was just trying to get those unruly students in line and they were stopping her from doing just that. Her eyes widened at remembering the Snape twins talking to one of those magic-stealing boys she had in detention a few days ago. They had to be responsible for those fools questioning her. They would pay for that! Hearing someone clear their throat, she snapped out of her thoughts. To her displeasure, Amelia bones had joined them as well and the woman dared to give her a order to hand over all the blood quills that she had. 

If she hid one, she'd be arrested and her plan would come to nothing. She reluctantly gave them the box, swearing to get revenge on all of them. Fortunately for her, Cornelius had signed a contract that she could only be properly fired with his approval. She wasn't done by long shot, until Hogwarts was completely under ministry control. Whoever those lords and ladies were, they could go to hell for all she cared. 

Seeing that Umbridge was still there the next day, Harry and Helena shared a look and nodded. This meant war. Their prank on Halloween had been in good fun, but now, it was serious. Using a spell from her book, Helena gave Umbridge a personal storm cloud that had lightning strike her every time she tried to speak. Harry ordered Dobby and Winky to turn her office into a fitting swamp and they gladly obeyed. 

Apparently, more people had the same idea as the muggleborn victims started to speak up and soon, the entire school was turned against her. They may have their differences, but if you messed with one of them, you messed with them all and if she thought that she could get away, she'd another thing coming. Fred and George were making good money with their prank items. One day, Helena remembered that they had another ally. "Peeves!" She called and with a farting noise, he appeared in front of her. "Yes, lady puff and claw?" He asked.

"You know "professor" Umbridge?" Helena asked in return He nodded and she smirked. "Give her hell, you hear me? Give her everything you got." Helena ordered. He straightened up and saluted, before going to work. With his help, the last few weeks before Christmas break were absolute hell for Umbridge. She could barely take a step, before getting pranked. She tried taking points and giving detentions, but the student didn't seemed to care

The teachers did their absolute minimum to help the pink bitch. She may have a contract to keep her here, but they weren't going to make it easy for her. The worst part was when she was walking past the lake and a giant beaver suddenly jumped up from the water and started chasing her with a ripped out tree. That certainly hadn't been there when she had been a student. Where had that beast come from? 

On the Saturday before Christmas break, Helena decided to write a small letter to Tom as they hadn't heard of him ever since the ritual. Having heard the rumour that Umbridge tried to intercept their mail, she made the letter as casual as possible, before tying it to Athena's leg and letting her fly off after telling her to be careful. To her confusion, Athena immediately dove down and seemed to go around the castle. Letting her owl's odd behaviour go, Helena walked out and a student ran up to her, giving her a note from Umbridge.

The witch invited her for tea that afternoon. Walking down to the dungeons, she showed her father the note and raised her eyebrows in surprise as he cursed. "That bloody, good-for-nothing bitch." Severus hissed. "Dad?" Helena asked and he forced himself to calm down. "She asked me for some Veritaserum a few days ago. I didn't trust her for obvious reasons and simply gave her water in a vial." He explained. 

"And now she has invited me for tea. Exactly how does she think this will work?" Helena asked. "I have no idea, but I now see the reason why she didn't tell me what she was planning with it. No parent wants to help someone, who wants to drug their children." He muttered. "What do I do now?" Helena asked and Severus pulled her into a hug. "I'll tell her that you're busy with homework and don't have time." He answered. 

There was no way that he would let that woman closer to his children than necessary. Helena smiled and hugged him back, before yawning and sagging against her father's body. "Are you alright?" He asked. "Just tired. The classes are getting harder." She muttered. "Just wait until after break, little raven. It will get even harder as you get to the O. W. L exams." He said with a laugh and she groaned. "On the brighter side, if you wish, you can drop a subject as long as it isn't a core one." He told her. She hummed at that, before pulling back.

Severus frowned at seeing the look on her face. "What's wrong, Helena?" He asked. "I don't know what I want to do after graduating, apart from the obvious." She murmured a bit sheepish and he smiled. "Don't worry. You have plenty of time to figure it out." He told her. "But Harry already knows what he wants to do." She said and he chuckled. "Some people know it sooner than others. Your mother didn't know what she wanted to do either." He told her. 

"Really?" Helena asked in surprise and he nodded. "But to be fair: there was a war going on and then she got pregnant with you and Harry and then..." He trailed off at that and Helena hugged him again. "I miss her too." She whispered as he held her tightly and took deep breaths. "Have you heard from Tom?" He finally asked to change the subject. She shook her head. "I wrote a letter to him this morning, but I haven't heard anything." She said

He hummed, before kissing her forehead and letting her go. Not wanting to leave just yet, she asked Dobby to bring her homework and settled down in a chair once he had done so. Harry and Luna joined them not long after that, the boy looking incredibly frustrated. "The club again?" Helena asked. The three idiots had tried to convince them to start a defence club with them to counter Umbridge, but they had refused each time. Harry nodded, before sitting down on a couch with a sigh. Luna immediately sat down next to him, snuggling up to him. 

He smiled at her and Helena smiled at the both of them. Her brother was lucky to have his soulmate in the same world. After their shared Christmas dream, she'd never heard from Caspian or Narnia again. She looked down for a second, before returning to her homework. Severus sent Umbridge a note that Helena couldn't come to tea as she was busy, ignoring the notes that she sent after that. 

During the next few days, Umbridge tried to get the twins alone, but failed each time, mostly because of Severus and professor Flitwick. One day before break, the Weasley twins sat down next to the Snape twins at the Hufflepuff table. "Well done with your latest prank with the toad's office. It's wicked." They commented with smirks, only to get confused faces in return. "What prank?" Harry asked

"You don't know? Someone released dozens of snakes in her office. You should've heard her scream. We thought that, since you know Parseltongue, you were responsible for it." Fred and George answered. "Well, we aren't." Helena said. "Then who is?" Fred asked. "The whole school hates her, so we have plenty of suspects, but I don't think a first or second year will be able to make snakes appear out of nowhere, so probably an older person." Harry said thoughtfully. The others thought as well, but couldn't think of anyone who could've done it. 

The next day, it was finally time for Christmas break and several relieved students were sitting in the Hogwarts Express. The twins had plenty to do. Since Umbridge could only be fired with Fudge's approval, they would just have to force his hand. They had a visit wh the goblins, both to visit Quirrel and to write a contract that would hopefully force the idiot minister to act. Their patience had been thin before and now, it was completely gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating yesterday. I'm not really feeling well, so it might be that you'll get an update every other day for now. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	11. Quirrel and meetings

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

It was in the first few days that they got word back from Tom. The guy told them that he was safe in hiding and that Dumbledore would never find him. They felt a bit more relieved at that, but still wondered where he was. "Oh, well. As long as he's safe from Dumbledore, I guess we can't really complain." Sirius commented and the twins nodded as they had to agree with that. A few days later, they went to see an almost fully recovered Quirrel at Gringotts.

"Hey Quirrel. How do you feel?" Helena asked politely. "Very different, I have to admit. Although, it's nice to finally have a bit of privacy again. I mean, Tom was there when I went to the bathroom." The man answered and the twins laughed. "Have you seen him recently?" Severus asked with a smile and he nodded. "He's been visiting a few times during the weekends with glamour on, of course and we talk through the mirror Sirius gave me." Quirrel said, holding up said mirror and looking at Sirius briefly. He asked them how things were at school. 

"Well, we have a new history teacher and he's a complete jerk." Helena murmured, telling Quirrel what he had said during her detention. The man was scandalized. "He went way too far with that comment." He said and the twins happily agreed. Quirrel smiled at them, before changing the subject. "You know, I do miss our little bets." He said, smiling at seeing Harry and Helena give him confused faces, not understanding what he meant with that.

"You have to do something to pass the time. We always had these little bets, like who can hold their breaths the longest. You can't cheat by breathing through your nose when the person you're playing against, is literally attached to you." He said. The others laughed, picturing Tom and Quirrel having a breathing contest. "We're actually having a new bet right now, but I can't tell you what it is, until we finished it one way or another." Quirrel continued.

"Can't wait to hear what it is." Harry said. The goblins informed them that some of the saner death eaters had been rescued from Azkaban and were being healed. They nodded at that, before meeting with Ragnok and writing a special contract. Once that was done, they said goodbye and left. The day after that, it was the wizengamot meeting. After discussions with, Sirius, Lucius and Augusta, who talked with lords and ladies with children at Hogwarts, they had decided to put in a vote of no-confidence for Fudge, which would remove him.

After another long discussion, they decided to nominate Kingsley Shacklebolt as his replacement.They informed Amelia and the man himself in after making that decision. Both agreed with it, knowing that Umbridge had to go. At first, they had wondered if Lucius would make a good candidate, but decided against it. He already was in the right spot as chief warlock and proxy of their seats.

Besides, Lucius had seen how much work being the minister was and he preferred to spend that time with his family. The twins had agreed with that. Lucius, Sirius and Augusta met with the father of Daphne Greengrass before the meeting. For a vote like this to be put through, it had to have one person agreeing with it from each section and the Chief Warlock had to agree with it as well.

One person from the dark section, one from the neutral section and one from the light section. With Sirius having decided to align his seat with the neutral section just to scorn Dumbledore several years ago, they had everything that they needed for it to actually happen. They went in and the meeting had barely begun, before Augusta stood up and made the vote, Sirius and lord Greengrass supporting it. "What?! You can't do that to me!" Fudge sputtered loudly. He needed to be in power to keep the public calm.

"You allowed that woman to hurt our children and she's hurting our children, by making them write lines with a blood quill. Not only that, I heard about her "lessons." How dare you put such a useless teacher in front of the class while students have O. W. L or N. E. W. T exams?" Lord Greengrass demanded to know."Delores is just doing her job." Fudge sputtered. "And that's exactly the problem." Augusta replied.

Fudge looked towards Lucius for help, but just got a blank stare in return. The Malfoy patriarch may have been a death Eater once, but he had changed and he was absolutely repulsed by what Umbridge had done. "Vote passed." He said calmly. "You can't do this!" Fudge insisted stubbornly."Well, I happen to have a contract signed by the lord Gryffindor-Slytherin and the lady Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff." Lucius says

"They demand your resignation and Delores Umbridge leaving the school or they will take full control of the school and any influence the ministry had until this point, will be gone completely." He continued calmly, handing the contract to Amelia. She scanned the contract and declared it legitimate.Fudge protested the decision all the way, until two Aurors started to walk towards him to force him from the chair, forcing him to stand up and leave the room.

Dumbledore was shocked. This was perfect! If he could get one of his pawns minister, he could make the whole wizarding world believe that Voldemort was back. He was a bit worried about the fact that Tom had held himself extremely quiet, but he knew that he had to attack one day. He had ordered his order to guard the hall that led to the department of Mysteries, but nothing until now. He was so deep in thought that he missed Sirius nominating Kingsley with Augusta seconding it and Kingsley accepting it.

He only snapped out of his thoughts when Lucius asked if there were any more nominees. Dumbledore quickly nominated one of his most loyal pawns, who would listen to every word he said. The nominees had six months to campaign themselves and a new minister would be sworn in during the next meeting. They voted on who would be temporary minister and Kingsley won. Not long after that, the meeting closed.

With the contract in hand and a gleeful twinkle in her eyes, Amelia went to officially fire and arrest Delores Umbridge for illegal use of a blood quill and child endangerment. The woman was soon dragged into the ministry kicking and screaming, demanding to see the minister, only to hear that he had been dismissed and letting out a loud scream at that. People said that she finally sounded like the true witch she was

A day before Christmas, Dumbledore "invited" (ordered) his order to meet him once again in his office. Once everyone was there, he introduced his new spy: Timothy Eldir. "Albus, are you sure this is a good idea? He's a stranger. He has no idea how important this is and how vile the dark is." Molly protested, looking at Eldir in suspicion and mistrust. "He has already agreed, Molly. It was his choice." Dumbledore said. Molly clearly didn't like that and kept muttering about how Eldir must be a dark wizard and a Death Eater himself.

"You know I can hear you from here, right? But if it really eases your mind." Eldir muttered, rolling up his sleeves and showing his completely bare forearms. This appeased many in the order, except for Molly of course, but she kept her mouth shut for now. After the meeting finally drew to a close, the woman went to Severus, Sirius and Remus with a furious expression on her face and the men already prepared themselves for a headache.

"Severus, I heard from Albus that you annulled the marriage contracts. You shouldn't have done that. My babies are perfect for Harry and Helena. We need to go to the bank and have those goblins write up new ones." She demanded and Severus raised an eyebrow. "You may be the mother of seven children, Molly, but you're certainly not mine. You can't order me around like you clearly believe you can." He said coolly.

Molly turned red in the face, but he wasn't done. "As for the contracts. I annulled them for a reason. I've seen my children's marks and it's not ms. and mr. Weasley's names that are written on their skin, so why on earth would I force my children in an unhappy marriage with people they clearly despise? Besides, I've read the contracts. Slaves in America had more freedom than my children would've had with those contracts. They would have needed permission from their "spouses" for everything. Don't even think I'll write new ones." He continued. 

Molly was about to scream, when Arthur pulled her away, sending an apologetic look towards Severus. "Were they that bad?" A voice asked from behind Severus, startling him as he, Remus and Sirius turned around and saw Eldir. "Yes, but may I ask why you accepted to spy on someone who isn't even back?" He asked coolly and Eldir just shrugged in reply. "Mostly the pay. Albus offered 500 galleons for every bit of information I give him." He said

"I could tell him the Dark Lord is taking a shower and become a millionaire." He said and the only thing that stopped Severus from smirking was the comment he had made a few weeks ago. "Is there anything else you needed to discuss?" He asked and Eldir nodded."I would like to apologise for what I said during your daughter's detention." He said "I went too far and I realise that." He continued, actually sounding genuine. Sirius, Remus and Severus shared a look.

"If you never make such a comment again, I might forgive you." Severus finally said and Eldir nodded, before leaving. The three men quickly left as well. "You okay, Moony?" Sirius asked in concern at seeing Remus rub his nose. "I think I may be coming down with a cold, that's all Padfoot. I smelled almost nothing on Eldir." He murmured. "A werewolf with a cold? Now I've seen everything." Sirius said with a grin, only for Remus to spray him with water 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new chapter. I feel a bit better and I want to thank my readers for their kind words. They really meant a lot to me. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	12. Christmas and a surprise visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

On Christmas morning, the twins got up later than they had during their first real Christmases. They had gotten used to it by now, but that didn't take away their joy at being able to celebrate it with their real family. Luna and her father would join them in the afternoon, because the man wanted to know his daughter's soulmate, but the morning would be just them, their dad, their uncles and their familiars.

Coming downstairs and hugging their father and uncles, the twins sat down and were about to open their presents, when their floo turned green. They immediately grabbed their wands and prepared themselves. Only the goblins, Malfoys, Longbottoms and the Patils were allowed to floo to them, but you could never be too careful. Still, when a very sheepish looking Tom appeared in the flames with a tiny present in his hand, most of them relaxed after Severus did an identity check. "He lives!!!!" Helena shouted and everyone chuckled .

"I'm really sorry that I didn't contact you much during these past few months. I've been keeping myself extremely quiet while getting used to being completely whole for the first time since I was a child." Tom said and everyone nodded in understanding. "So, what's the plan?" Harry asked. "Right now, I'm focused on fooling Dumbledore and quietly getting as many followers as I possibly can. We aren't the only ones unhappy with Dumbledore" Tom started. 

"It's important not to let this turn out like the last war that had so many casualties." He continued and everyone agreed with that logic. "What are you doing here?" Severus asked and Tom looked down. "Well, I never had a proper Christmas before and you told me that I had an open invitation with you, so I was hoping if I could join you, but if not, I'll just leave my present here and go back to Gringotts." He said. 

The twins, Severus, Sirius and Remus shared a look. "You're more than welcome to stay." Severus told him with a smile and Tom smiled back as he joined them. Harry and Helena ran upstairs and got the presents that they had bought for him and had planned to send it to the goblins later. Running back down, they gave the presents to him and the man actually teared up at seeing that they had thought of him as well. "Thank you." He said as he opened them, the twins smiling at him. "How's the bet with Quirrel?" Helena asked

Tom again looked sheepish. "It's going good, but I'm afraid that I took it too far." He muttered and they laughed. "Well, I still hope you win." Helena chuckled and Tom smiled at her. "By the way, I heard through some of my contacts that a Timothy Eldir has been asking around in the lower circles of society." He said. "Our new history teacher. A total prick and Dumbledore's new spy." Helena spat. 

"You hate him." Tom stated. Helena nodded and told her friend what Eldir had said during her detention. "Oh Merlin. I am so sorry." Tom said absolutely horrified. "Hey, you didn't send him, did you?" Helena asked. "No, but I'm still sorry. That just crossed so many lines." Tom said and they nodded in agreement. The twins went through the rest of their presents, before Tom gave his.

"I found this in the Gaunt ring. For it to really work, the three of you must be in physical contact, close your eyes and turn it three times in your hand." He explained, pointing at the twins and Severus. They nodded, but he wasn't done. "I have to warn you that people have gone mad through extended use of the item, so I'm only allowing you to use it once and no more than that, understood?" He asked sternly. The twins immediately nodded again. "Good, now if you'll exuse me: I need to talk to Sirius and Remus." He said, quickly pulling the men out of the room with him.

Harry, Helena and Severus all stared after them in bemusement. "Something tells me that he doesn't have to talk to them." Severus said dryly. "Don't think so either, but it's nice that he gives us privacy for whatever this thing is." Harry replied, looking at the small box and they agreed. "Okay, he said that we're only allowed to use it once, so let's see what it is." Helena said excitedly.

Harry pulled off the ribbon and opened the little box, turning it around and letting a small stone fall in his free hand. They all stared at it. "A stone?" Severus asked. "Well, maybe there's something special about it Let's follow Tom's instructions." Helena reasoned. "Okay, so physical contact." Harry said as Helena and Severus put their hands on his shoulders. "Check. Close your eyes." He continued and all three closed their eyes.

"I can't see it, but likely check. And turn the stone three times in your hand. One. Two. Three." He finished, turning the stone. Opening their eyes, they stared at what was in front of them. Harry was the first one to find his voice. "Mum?" He breathed. The spirit of Lily smiled at the three of them." Hello, my darlings." She whispered and as if on cue, three pairs of eyes teared up. Lily's smile became wider as she walked forwards.

Helena reached for her, but her hand went straight through her mother's arm. The first of Helena's tears fell at that. Her mother was there, but she wasn't. She now understood why Tom had been so stern and serious about this. "You have been so strong and brave. All three of you." Lily stated. "Lily." Severus breathed and the spirit of the love of his life smiled at him, walking closer to whisper in his ear."Sev. I know you still blame yourself for forgetting our children. Don't. You have done your best to protect them ever since you found them again and that's what matters." She whispered

Harry and Helena looked away and gave them some well-deserved privacy.Seeing her husband smile again, Lily straightened up and went to her children. She reached out and cupped their faces. Even though they didn't feel anything but a cold gust of air, Harry and Helena leaned into her touch as best as they could, tears rolling down their cheeks. "My brave boy and my darling girl." Lily whispered, her tone saying everything else.

It told them how much she loved them and how proud she was of everything. Helena started to cry and her brother wasn't far behind. "We miss you, mummy." She whispered. "I miss you too, but I'm always watching over you. I promise." Lily told them. They smiled through their tears and she smiled back, before kissing their foreheads. "It's time to let the stone go. The longer you hold it, the more tempted you become." She said

The twins and Severus immediately looked reluctant, not wanting to say goodbye for good. "You can do it. It's time to look towards the future, but I'll always be with you." Lily promised. "We love you, mum." Harry breathed. "I love you too. I'm so proud of you." Lily replied, before looking at Severus, who had been watching"Keep taking care of our children for me, Sev. Can you do that for me?" She asked and he immediately nodded in answer. "Of course. Anything for you, Lily." He swore with tears rolling down his own cheeks at a steady pace.

Lily smiled at him. "Thank you Severus. I love you so much." She said. "I love you too." He breathed, before looking at Harry, who slowly turned his hand and dropped the stone on the couch.Lily kept smiling at them as she disappeared. Once she was gone, the three surviving members of the family, wrapped each other into a tight family hug, tears rolling down their cheeks as they cried for the member they had lost so long ago.

After at least a few minutes, Tom, Sirius and Remus carefully peeked into the room and saw that they were still crying. "Merlin, what did you give them?" Sirius asked in a very soft tone as he looked at the small family in concern. "An old family relic. It gave them an chance to get closure." Tom whispered back, pulling out his new wand and summoning the Resurrection Stone back into his hands.

"Let's leave them alone for a bit longer." He breathed and the other men agreed as they pulled back. Getting an idea, Tom held the stone out to them. "Are you sure?" Remus asked and he nodded. "See it as a thank you for helping me." He answered. Remus took it from him and Tom gave him and Sirius the same instructions and warnings as the twins and Severus. After that, he send them upstairs to their shared bedroom, so they could have privacy.The man himself went to the library and when he checked up on the men a bit later, they were in the same state as the Snape family. 

Summoning the stone again, Tom quietly took his leave. Once everyone was calmed down, Tom left to go back to wherever he lived, promising to stay in contact with them. Luna and her dad arrived not long after that and the girl immediately skipped towards Harry, giving him a hug and kissing his cheek. "She's still with you." She whispered and Harry hugged her back with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you, Luna." He whispered. Slowly letting go, he formally introduced himself to the girl's father as Luna gave Helena a giant bear hug she told her the same thing, which made her tear up as well. Once introductions were over, they sat down and started to talk, even introducing the man to Cayden and Aurora after swearing him to secrecy. All-in-all, this Christmas was magical

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually teared up writing this. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	13. A valentine's day surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

After Christmas break, nothing much of importance happened during the first few weeks, except Dumbledore and his pawns trying to figure out whose names were on Harry's and Helena's wrists. The twins and especially Harry were very careful not to let them know. Tonks temporarily taught defence as Umbridge had been sentenced to work in the goblin mines as she had somehow stolen the blood quills from them.

Eldir actually kept himself low for now and didn't go out of his way to insult the twins anymore, but they still kept an close eye on him. Around the end of January, they heard that the next Hogsmeade weekend happened to be on Valentine's day. Helena suddenly noticed Padma looking rather solemn at the announcement as she missed her soulmate even more. Thinking for a minute, she got an idea and quickly wrote to the goblins, getting confirmation a few days later. She smirked at that, excited for the day itself. 

On Valentine's day, many students left for Hogsmeade in pairs as couples wanted to spend as much time together as they could. After really making sure Padma would be fine with Helena, Parvati left for the village with Dean after breakfast. Walking through the village at a casual pace and noticing her friend looking sullen, Helena gave her a concerned look. "I just miss Viktor. I didn't even get a letter or a flower from him." Padma sighed.

Helena smiled, noticing someone approaching her friend from behind. "I'm sure he has a reason. Knowing Viktor from last year, he wouldn't have forgotten you." Helena said, before Padma felt someone wrap their arms around her from behind. "I haven't." A very familiar voice whispered in her ear and she immediately looked up to see Viktor smiling at her. "Viktor!" She squealed softly, turning around in his arms. 

"Hello, my sweet angel." Viktor greeted as Padma caressed his face, unable to believe her eyes. Completely forgetting that Helena was there as well, Padma pulled her seeker into a kiss which he gladly returned. Helena was beaming at her friend, happy that her plan turned out so well. It would look rather weird to see Viktor walk in Hogwarts, but Hogsmeade was free for all to go to at any time. Breaking apart for air, Padma let out a happy giggle. "You're really here." She whispered, looking right into his eyes. 

"Yes, my angel. I'm here and you can thank Helena for that." Viktor said, glancing and smiling at his friend. Padma immediately whirled around to face Helena. "You didn't!" She said and Helena grinned. "I sure did." She answered cheekily and Padma narrowed her eyes. "I'm not sure if I should thank you or strangle you." She muttered, earning another laugh from her friend and her soulmate. 

"I have a small counter offer. How about you just go enjoy this date with your soulmate?" Helena replied and Padma grinned at her, before frowning. "You'll be alright on your own?" She asked. "Yeah. I'm meeting uncle Moony in a few minutes. Don't worry." She replied. Padma smiled, before excitedly pulling Viktor along with her. Helena smiled at seeing her friend so happy, before her smile fell at hearing an annoying voice

"Helena, where's Harry?" Weaselette demanded to know as she, Weasley and Granger walked towards her. "How should I know? I'm not his warden. Why should you care where he is?" She asked rudely, already done with them. "No need to be so rude, Helena. Ginny just asked you a question. Now, where's Harry?" Granger asked and Helena sighed in frustration. "Like I just said: I don't know and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. You're not our friends and you never will be. Now, get lost!" She ordered, seeing someone approach from behind them. 

The idiots were about to say something, when someone cleared his throat from behind them. Whirling around, they saw an unamused Remus looking at them. "I believe my niece told you to leave." He said, a dangerous grin on his face as he let Moony come to the forefront for a bit. The three idiots quickly walked away and Helena sighed in relief. "Thanks, uncle Moony." She said and he gave her a genuine smile. "No problem, cub." He said, ruffling her hair.

She smiled at him, before they went to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer. "Let's hope we don't run into annoying reporters again." Helena muttered and Remus chuckled, having heard about the piss-spiked drink. "Well, they still haven't found Skeeter and I honestly don't think they will." He said and she hummed as they sat down at an empty table. Once they sat down, Remus changed the subject. "Have you thought about the tour?" He asked.

During break, Sirius had given the twins and some of their friends a small tour through the ministry to show what the different departments did, apart from the Department of Mysteries as that one was usually off-limits to anyone. He had instead told them what he could about it as well as other places of interest for work like the hospital. It had been an informative trip and the teens were still talking about it when they went home. Helena nodded. "Yeah. There's actually one place whose info appealed to me." She said. Remus smiled. "Which one?" He asked.

"Promise you won't laugh?" Helena asked in return. He promised and she told him. He hummed thoughtfully. "I'm not gonna lie and say that it doesn't suit you, but you'll have to work really hard to get a place there. You must work as hard as you can, because it will not be a walk in the park." He told her and she sat up. "I can do that." She said and he chuckled. "I have no doubt that you can." He told her, before they drank their butterbeer 

In the meantime, Viktor and Padma were sitting in Hogsmeade's tea shop after having greeted an ecstatic Parvati and Dean. Some of the other couples stared at them, but they didn't care. Padma kept holding her soulmate's hand the whole time, the sensation of him rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand reassuring her that he really was there. "So why did Helena invite you?" She asked.

"Well, she thought it was unfair that we couldn't see each other during Christmas, so she thought of this." He said. "I really have to thank her for this." She said and he chuckled at her words. "You can do that later, my angel. Now, may I ask why your mail to me was once delivered by an actual Phoenix?" He asked. He and his parents had jumped a mile into the air when the bird had suddenly flashed into the room. Padma grinned. "That's Kenna. She's Parvati's familiar." She explained and Viktor's eyes widened, his jaw falling.

"Parvati has a _Phoenix_ as a familiar." He asked softly and Padma nodded with a grin, remembering that he hadn't met Artemis yet. Keeping that in mind, they continued to drink their tea and caught up with each other. Viktor's grip on Padma's hand tightened at hearing about Umbridge and her blood quills, before relaxing at hearing that she was gone. He laughed at hearing about how the teachers had danced on Halloween

Once they were done, she paid and took her soulmate back towards the school. "Where are we going, my angel?" Viktor asked in confusion. "You'll see, my Seeker." She answered as they walked towards Hagrid's house. The half-giant was in the village with Fang Once there, she cupped her hands around her mouth. "Artemis!" She called and soon enough, a brown blur shot towards her and jumped on the girl, making her fall backwards in the snow.

Viktor was about to pull his wand, when he heard her laugh. "Artemis, get off! You're crushing me." Padma said, pushing Artemis off her and grabbing her soulmate's outstretched hand, the man pulling her up. "Sorry about that. Sometimes, she forgets that she isn't a small kitten anymore." She apologised as the Wampus finally noticed Viktor and let out a cautious growl. "It's alright, Artemis. This is my soulmate, Viktor. I just got back from visiting him when I met you. Viktor, this is my familiar, Artemis." Padma introduced the two.

At hearing that the man was her witch's Mate, Artemis quickly stopped growling and sat down. "Angel, that's a Wampus." Viktor said. "Yep." Padma replied flippantly, like it was the most normal thing ever. "You should've seen her a few weeks ago. She almost took a bite out of Granger after she tried to attack me again. Keyword is "tried."" She continued, quickly adding the last bit at seeing his panicked face. Calming down, Viktor smiled at the Wampus.

"That was a very good thing. Thank you." He said and Artemis glowed at the praise, deciding that she liked her witch's Mate. Padma and Viktor spent the rest of the afternoon with her, walking around the grounds. Bob the beaver had made a hole in the ice and waved at them, recognising Viktor from last year. At the end of the afternoon, Viktor had to go. Padma was reluctant to let him as they said goodbye close to the gates.

"I'll see you this summer, my angel. I promise." Viktor told her. He cupped her face and kissed her forehead. Padma grabbed his wrists to prolong the contact as long as possible. Pulling back, Viktor kneeled in front of Artemis. "Keep her safe for me, alright?" He asked and Artemis purred in answer, pushing her head against his hand. Viktor smiled and thanked her, before standing up again. Padma wasted no second and kissed him with all that she had. He quickly returned it, before they broke apart for air. "I love you, my angel." He whispered.

"I love you too, my Seeker." She replied. He beamed at her, before kissing the ring on her hand as was tradition. Gently touching her face once more, he reluctantly turned around and started to walk away. Padma watched him go, until she couldn't see him anymore. Turning around, she kneeled in front of Artemis and scratched her behind her ear. "I'll see you tomorrow, alright?" She asked, Artemis purred, before turning and running to the forest.

Trudging up towards the castle, Padma quickly found Helena in the Great Hall and sat down next to her. "Thank you, Helena. This was the best Valentine's day ever." She said and Helena grinned at her. "You're very welcome." She replied. Padma smiled back, before frowning. "So, where are Harry and his soulmate?" She asked. "As I told the idiots earlier: I have no idea." Helena answered and she nodded at that. 

Meanwhile, Harry and Luna were walking towards the Great Hall after a very special date. After asking the house-elves about a special place for a date, they had told their lord about the Room of Requirements, which could change into anything he wanted. He had tried it out and it worked spectacularly. Taking Luna to it, the room had transformed into a beautiful meadow in a sunlit forest, a cloth with a picnic basket waiting for them in the middle. They had spent the whole day there, talking and sometimes just sitting there in comfortable silence.

Luna was still wearing the flower bracelet that Harry had made for her. It wasn't the most precise bracelet, but she didn't care. It had been a perfect day. They joined the others for dinner, both smiling like idiots and ignoring thr smiles their friends gave them. Neville and his soulmate Hannah were sitting with them as well as Draco and Daphne. Helena was listening to her friends talking about their dates with a smile, despite missing her own soulmate.

"You better make up for this, Aslan." She muttered under her breath. Once dinner was over, they all split up. Harry and Helena were doing their homework in their father's office, the man himself grading papers. All three looked up at hearing furious knocking on the door. Severus opened it to see Minerva standing there, empty memory vials in her hand and her face pale and furious as she said one thing. 

"We need to talk." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Easter, everyone. Sorry for not updating in a few days. I started a new story, but here's a big chapter as well as the return of a certain someone to make up for it. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	14. Another ally

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

_A few minutes before._

_Minerva entered her office after dinner, only to see a pensieve and several filled memory vials waiting for her on her desk. Scanning her office for intruders with her wand, but coming up empty, she cautiously walked closer. A note was lying next to the vials. After scanning it and once again finding nothing on it, she picked it up and carefully unfolded it._

_Minerva._

_I'm giving you these memories, because you of all people should know what kind of man you work for. I hate to tell you this, but Albus Dumbledore is not the kind man that you think he is. From what Helena told me, you have started to notice his increasing desire to control the Snape twins. Believe me when I say that that's one if the least bad things he has done._

_In the vials are my memories of my school years and all the things Dumbledore forced me to do both during and after. The reason that I give you this is because you were a good friend to me, even if we were in opposing houses and I had compulsion potions running through my veins. Yes, you read that correctly. Everything will be clear when you watch the memories. Go to the Snape family once you're done. They can explain more. And please don't run to Dumbledore with this._

_Your old friend,_

_Tom._

_"Merlin's beard. He really is back." Minerva breathed in complete shock, recognising his writing from anywhere. It was true that she and Tom had been friends or at least what counted as a friend for him, despite her being a Gryffindor and a couple of years younger than him . She had noticed him changing over the last years of his education, but had been unable to figure out why or or how._

_For several minutes, she was torn between ignoring the note's request and going to Albus with this or watch the memories that had been provided to her_ _. Remembering the young man who had helped her with her charms homework once upon a time, she locked her office and put the first vial with memories in the pensieve and dove in._ _She could only watch in horror as Dumbledore fed her old friend potions all through his first year, until he barely was the same as in the beginning of the year._

_The pensieve kicked her out at the end of the year and she quickly put in the next one. This went on for a while, with Minerva growing more and more disgusted by each year. When she was at fifth year, only Tom's request not to go to Dumbledore made her stop from ripping her head out of the pensieve and going to give the old man a piece of her mind._

_When she saw Myrtle's name on Tom's wrist, Minerva had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop the bile from coming up. When she saw Dumbledore force Tom to create not one, but two horcruxes during school, the second being created by the murder of his own father and grandparents, her nails dug so deep into the edges of the pensieve that she almost could feel them breaking._

_The final set of memories consisted out of what happened after that fateful Halloween, from the minute Dumbledore tried to kill him to his resurrection with help from the Snape twins. When the pensieve threw her out for the final time, she first silenced herself and let out a muted scream of rage, her magic going wild for the first time in a long while. Once she had calmed herself down enough to have a reasonable conversation with someone, she hid the pensieve in her desk, grabbed the vials and hurried out._

_\--------------------_

_Present_

I still can't believe you pretty much did it all on your own. What if Al... what if he had caught you?" Minerva demanded after minutes of ranting about Dumbledore and everything she had just learned once Severus had put a silencing spell on the door. "We weren't alone, professor. We had the goblins and the Malfoys." Helena piped up, only to cower at the stern look her professor gave her.

"Minerva, we did our best to minimize the risk of Dumbledore finding out what we were doing." Severus replied. "Yes, I can see that. Next thing you're going to tell me you were responsible for the Chamber of Secrets opening." Minerva scoffed, the memories having left that part out. Seeing the extremely guilty expressions on Harry's and Helena's faces, she let out a Scottish curse. 

"You must be joking! What about Colin? And Nearly Headless Nick? Don't you care about any of them?" She demanded. "Of course we do! Colin's body was a golem and Nick volunteered to be petrified. He can't die again. Granger figured it out and Penelope was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Harry answered, incensed at the accusation. "Well, at least the monster is dead." Minerva muttered. "Uh, actually...." Helena started. "It's not dead?!" Minerva screeched and they quickly explained the true situation behind the Chamber. 

Minerva slowly rubbed her head and cursed several times during the explanation. "I'll come back tomorrow morning and then I better hear the whole truth about the situation, understood?" She asked lowly and all three immediately nodded in answer, before she left. "Pff. She really is a lion through and through." Harry sighed once she was gone and his family agreed. 

"How did the pensieve and memories get there?" Helena asked in confusion. "Well, Tom actually wrote me a note this morning, asking if he could temporarily borrow Dobby for today, so I guess he put it there." Severus explained and they nodded in understanding. Deciding to leave their homework for now as they couldn't concentrate anymore, Harry and Helena went back to their common rooms after hugging their father. 

The next morning, they explained everything to Minerva. From brief mentions of the Dursleys, which made her curse at hearing the confirmation that she had been right all those years ago, to the last summer. Even Narnia was mentioned when explaining Helena's odd mark. Once the they were done, Minerva was silent for several minutes. "I don't suppose I could speak to Tom right now?" She asked. "I'm afraid that Tom is in deep hiding and even we don't know where he is." Severus told her. 

"But you can always write to the goblins. If anyone know where he is, it's them." Helena piped up and Minerva nodded. "Well, if Albus thinks that I'm going to put up with his nonsense after this, he has another thing coming." She hissed, sounding quite like her cat form and the Snapes grinned at that. "Just make sure he doesn't notice it for now. He still has too many followers to take him down now." Harry said and she nodded again. 

Things didn't change much after that. Weeks passed and before they knew it, Easter break had arrived. A note put up on the message board that told every fifth year that they were expected to have a career conversation with their head of house about what they wanted to do after school. Little pamphlets littered the common room in the week after the note with different kinds of career choices.

"What do you want to do after school?" Padma asked Helena one day as they were reading through the pamphlets and flyers. Helena held up the right pamphlet in answer and Padma's jaw fell. "Are you serious? Wow." She breathed in awe, before looking down and continuing to read through a pamphlet about the department of magical cooperation. Helena grinned at her friend, before reading another one. "What about Harry?" Padma asked. "He already knows too." Helena replied vaguely and she nodded in understanding.

The week after break, every fifth year had their career conversation. Harry was first on Wednesday afternoon. "Hey dad." He greeted as he entered the familiar office and his father smiled at him. "Hello Harry. Now, I know that this is different than my normal conversations with the other students, but I need to fill five minutes at the minimum, so pretend I don't know anything." He explained and Harry nodded with a smile.

"Alright then, mr. Snape. This conversation is to help you choose your career options after school and which classes you need to pass for said careers. Do you have any idea what you want to do once you're finished?" His father asked with a smile. "Actually, _professor Snape_ , I really want to become a curse breaker at Gringotts." Harry said with a mischievous smirk on his face as he put emphasis on his father's title. 

"Well, then you will need to score very highly if you want to succeed." Severus replied seemingly calm, but his eyes betrayed how worried he was about his son having such a dangerous career. "You are required to have an "O" in Potions, Defence and Transfiguration and at the very least an "EE" in Arithmancy and charms." He explained as he got the necessary flyer from the piles around him and showed it to his son. Harry leaned forwards in interest as he read through it and nodded in understanding.

"Study of the Ancient Runes is somehow not required, but is considered a bonus that might just help you get the job and I know that you have self-studied that one with help from Helena just as you helped her with Arithmancy." Severus continued and Harry made a face. "Why isn't it required? Who knows what you run into in those places." He said. "Exactly." Severus replied, giving him a look.

"Dad, I'm not going to be sitting in a bloody boring office all day. I want some excitement." Harry said. "First of all: language. Second: did you talk with Luna about this?" His father asked. "Of course. What do you take me for?" Harry asked in return and he nodded. They talked for a few more minutes, before Severus let his son go to his next class and prepared himself for the next student

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm cutting it here, because I have to fill the next chapter a bit. I honestly can't wait to write it, but you'll have to wait and see why. 
> 
> In the meantime, can any of you guess what Helena wants to do? 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	15. Conversations and reveals

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

It was Helena's turn not long after her brother and professor Flitwick happily greeted her. "Do you have any idea what you want to do once you have graduated?" The kind man asked and she took a deep breath and nodded. "I want to become an Unspeakable." She stated and she chuckled as her Head of House squeaked in surprise, before manning himself. It was no secret that not many students wanted to work there. 

Knowing who Helena really was or had been, the half-goblin had to admit that it suited her. "Well, then you need to receive good results. The Department of Mysteries and the things they study there are not for the weak wizards and witches. You must also be very tight-lipped, even with magics in place to prevent its secrets from being spilled." He said and Helena just gave him a look with a raised eyebrow and he grinned. "I know you are incredibly good at that considering the past few years, but it is required of me to tell you." He explained. 

Helena conceded at that. "What made you interested in that department?" Professor Flitwick asked. "I'm honestly not sure. Uncle Sirius gave us a tour of the ministry during Christmas break and none of the other department interested me, except maybe the magical law enforcement. The other departments about sport or magical cooperation didn't get my attention, although I know that Padma is interested in the latter." Helena said

"But then uncle Sirius told us about the Department of Mysteries or at least what he could tell us about it and that was the only thing that got my interest of all the departments." She continued and her professor nodded in understanding. "Well, you will need an "O" in defence, charms, transfiguration, astronomy and potions and also know your runes. I can't tell you much about it, but I can tell you that there are different rooms in the department." He said.

"Each room is dedicated to life's mysteries: mind, death, love, space and time. There's also the hall of prophecies, but that one isn't as dangerous. Where you will be placed, if you succeed in getting a job, depends on your marks. I will warn you that the training period will be difficult as they want to make sure that you can handle it. I know a student who failed the training, because they told him a seemingly insignificant thing and wanted him to recount it six months later. He tried to break into the department later and was never seen again." He told her. 

Seeing her gulp at that, he nodded grimly. "The Department of Mysteries is a dangerous place, Helena. If you don't know what you're doing, you might get yourself and others killed." He warned the girl and she nodded. "Nevertheless, I think you will succeed if you keep doing your best. You may want to work just a tiny bit harder and I'm sure that you will get the results needed and considering who you were, I have to say that it suits you." He said

She grinned at him, before he gave her some more information. Once she knew everything that she needed to know, she was allowed to leave. On the way back to Ravenclaw tower, she bumped into Eldir once again. "Are you alright?" The man asked, making Helena look at him in surprise. "I'm fine, thank you." She said shortly, before quickly walking away before he could assign her detention again.

Eldir watched her go, a slightly funny look in his eyes. His plan had succeeded and even had some unexpected results that had been in his favour, but at what cost? He really hoped that everything would be alright once this was over. The next day during lunch, the group of friends quietly discussed what they wanted to do. Draco really wanted to go into law enforcement, while Neville wanted to become a teacher, preferably herbology. Padma wanted to work at the Department of Magical Cooperation and Parvati wanted to become a journalist.

Everyone was really impressed at what the twins wanted to do, especially Helena. "It's just like you to want to do that." Padma commented and they grinned, before they continued to eat. After breakfast and in his office, Dumbledore was absolutely seething. He had asked the portraits to spy on the conversation between Helena and Filius as Severus had no portrait in his office, but they had actually refused. How dare they refuse him?!

He was the leader of the light and he really needed to know what the twins wanted to do. He needed them to become a healer and an auror to show the people that Harry would protect them and Helena would look after them. It wouldn't do if they had completely different jobs than the ones he wanted them to have, but with Severus as their father and guardian, who knows what vile thoughts he had put in their heads.

He had saved Severus from Azkaban because he had thought he would have need of his spy later.He had never regretted a decision more than he did now. Not only did Severus refuse to spy on Tom, he also blocked his attempts to prepare the twins for what was to come. If only he would have gone to spy on Tom, then the insane man would no doubt have killed the man and there would be one obstacle less. Granted, Sirius and Remus had showed themselves to be just as protective over the twins as Severus, but he could work with that. 

He needed a plan and fast. The twins only had two more years after this and then, they would be out of his reach. He knew that his pawns had tried to get closer to the twins and find out the names on their arms, but to no avail. Harry and Helena always kept their arms covered. If only they were still on those compulsion spells and potions, then they would have no problem showing their "friends" their soulmark

Then, he would be able to get rid of them like he did with Tom and that damned girl Myrtle. Salazar Slytherin would completely roll in his despicable grave if he found out the soulmate of his last heir had actually been a muggleborn. Tom had already started to care about her, even with the compulsion potions in his system, so he had seen absolutely no choice, but to make sure that the girl died.

Manipulating one of Myrtle's classmates to bully her so much that she ran into the right toilet crying had been incredibly easy to do. It had been harder to send Tom to summon the basilisk and kill his soulmate, but he had succeeded. It's a shame that the beast was dead now. He would've loved for history to repeat itself, but it was not to be. Another unseen benefit had been that Hagrid felt indebted to him after he had publicly tried to help the obnoxious loud fool, while secretly encouraging the higher-ups to expel the idiot.

He never wanted a half-giant in the school, but Dippet had allowed it. At least, the fool had his ideas as groundskeeper. He shook his head to focus. He really needed a new plan. The names of Harry's and Helena's soulmates could wait a bit. Putting the twins on the right path couldn't. The portraits around him shared looks. They had to warn the lord and lady that the goat was planning again.

While they were the portraits of the former headmasters, they were just as much a part of Hogwarts as the rest. They had to keep an eye on the old man. That evening, Andrew Scott hurried towards the dungeon, having just gotten word back from his colleagues in America. Before Christmas break, Severus had asked him to find out what he could about Timothy Eldir and the results had been concerning 

Knocking on the door and being allowed in, he saw Severus and Narcissa talking. "Ah, Andrew. Do come in, please. Did you find anything about Eldir?" Severus asked. "In a way. I have written to my colleagues in America and they have dug into records." Andrew started, a bit unsure on how to put the news. "Well, what did they find?" Severus asked slowly, seeing his face and knowing that something was wrong. "They found nothing." Andrew answered. "Nothing?" Both Severus and Narcissa chorused and he shook his head.

"There are no files of one Timothy Eldir or anything that looks like his name, not even sealed ones. As far as the records show, Timothy Eldir doesn't exist." He continued. Severus and Narcissa shared a look. "Then who the hell has been teaching our children during the past few months?" Severus demanded to know. Neither his friend, nor his colleague could answer him and he quickly stormed out of the room. 

During the same time, Fred, George and Colin Creevey had found the Snape twins in the library. The Weasley twins had decided to show Colin the map as the boy had shown enough mischief to continue their legacy when they were done with school, but they had stumbled on a problem. "Harry, Helena. Can you find professor Eldir on your maps, because we can't." Fred said in confusion and Helena looked up. 

"I believe so." She said, pulling out her own map and opening it. Activating it, she searched for Eldir and his name popped up. "He's in his office on the third floor, close to where the forbidden corridor was a few years ago." She said. Fred and George looked at the same spot. "Well, there's a name there, but not Eldir." George said and Harry and Helena stood up, walked around them and looked over their shoulders.At seeing the name on the map, their faces fell and they shared a look. "That son of a bitch." Helena cursed as she glared.

"You know him?" Colin asked. "Yeah and I'm gonna kill him." Helena replied darkly, before running away, Harry following. As they ran away, Fred and Colin turned to George with confused looks "Do you have any idea what that was about, Forge?" Fred asked. "No idea, Gred. I've honestly never seen Helena this angry." His brother answered with a raised eyebrow, before they looked down at the map. After a few seconds, Colin spoke up 

"Well, whoever this Tom Riddle fellow is, he better watch out because Helena, Harry and professor Snape are running right towards him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tadaaaa.... you now finally know what was going on with Eldir
> 
> Alright, some of you had figured it out in which case: bravo! Well done :D.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	16. Riddle me this

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

When the door to the office of Timothy Eldir AKA Tom Marvolo Riddle was slammed open and he saw not one, not two, but three pissed off Snapes standing there, only one thought went through his head _. 'I'm bloody screwed.'_ "Who the hell are you, Eldir?!" Severus demanded as he and his children walked in and his magic closed the door behind him, casting silencing spells on said door without looking. 

"We can answer that, dad. I guess that either Padfoot or Moony helped you to make sure we wouldn't see your true name on our maps." Harry said and Tom smirked at that. Severus gave his children a confused look as Helena gasped. "Oh! It has been staring us right in the face the whole time! Eldir is Ridle turned around. Put a second d with the other one..." She said, trailing off to show her point. " _Tom?!?!?"_ Severus hissed in disbelief and Tom gave him a wave. "Hey there, Severus. I was wondering when you'd figure it out." He said. "Why did you make that comment?" Helena asked and Tom immediately winced.

"That was me going too far up in my role and saying it before I realised it and I'm sorry for that. I already heard and felt it from Sirius and Quirrel." He sincerely apologised and Helena hummed. "Why the disguise? Why did you offer to become a teacher?" Harry asked and Tom made a face. "I really wanted to be close to Dumbledore, not that I don't trust you guys and honestly, I was bored." He answered.

"What you said during Christmas about "Eldir" asking after you, that was a lie too?" Helena asked. Not quite. Dumbledore asked me to spy on.... well.... me. He pays me handsomely for bringing him absolute nonsense. So much so that I want to make sure he can't get into your vaults anymore." Tom answered, giving them a look. "He hasn't been able to do that for years, my friend." Harry answered, telling him of the day when Dumbledore found out _._

_\-------------------------- flashback -------------------------_

_1991_

_Ragnok was writing several files, when another goblin knocked and entered after giving permission. He told Ragnok that Dumbledore was demanding to speak with him. Not asking, demanding to speak with him. Ragnok sighed deeply, already dreading this meeting and nodded at the other goblin. Not long after that, the goat stormed into the office. His face was almost purple in anger as he plopped down onto a seat._

_"How can Gringotts help you today?" Ragnok asked with a forced smile. "You can help me by doing the jobs you were assigned to by us wizards and let me into my vaults." Dumbledore growled and Ragnok pretended to look over the files. "I don't see how we could help you with that. According to our records, you have permission to enter vaults 1313 and 666." He said in a fake confused tone. He barely hid a smirk at almost seeing steam coming out of Dumbledore's ears. "I don't mean those vaults." He growled, before naming the vaults he wanted to visit._

_All vaults he mentioned rightfully belonged to the twins and Severus had taken control over them._ _"You must be confused, Mr Dumbledore. Those vaults belong to the Potter and Peverell families, not the Dumbledore family." Ragnok said, giving him an evil grin. He knew that Dumbledore has illegally stolen money and was prepared to take it all back. Goblins always took a bit of money from the vaults as taxes for their services, unless the family was really poor._

 _Dumbledore would see his taxes rise steeply for the next few years. "I was given permission to enter those vaults." The old man bluffed._ _He needed that money to pay his pawns when they became friends with the twins. "Well, that may have been so once, but the new owner of the vaults ordered us not to let anyone, but him and his children in." Ragnok said, giving the old fool a tiny piece of info for him to toss and turn over._

_"Who's the new owner? It's important that I need to speak with him. It's for the Greater Good that I regain access to those vaults. Tell me his name right now!" Dumbledore demanded, but Ragnok was unimpressed. "I'm afraid that's not your business, Mr Dumbledore, but we would be happy to help you with anything else concerning the state of your vaults." The goblin said calmly. Dumbledore growled, knowing that he couldn't attack the wretched creature while in the bank. He just whirled around and stormed out, vowing to get the vaults back._

_\------------------------ end flashback ------------------------_

"No way am I giving him control over your vaults, even if you weren't emancipated." Severus growled after they were done talking and Harry patted his back. "He must have found another poor bastard to leech off on." Helena growled and everyone agreed. "By the way, you may want to talk to Mcgonagall. She really wants to talk to you about what happened." Helena told him and he nodded. "So, why were you so mean to us all year long?" Harry asked.

"Well, Severus told me that Dumbledore doesn't trust anyone who's nice to you." Tom said. "Being mean to you gave me an opportunity to get closer without the fool realising exactly who he's letting in. Also, remember that bet with Quirrel?" He asked and they all nodded. "He betted that I couldn't make you hate me." He said, the others letting out snorts."I betted that I could, but again, I went a bit too far. Apologies again, Helena." He murmured.

The girl gave him a grin. "At least it gave me a lesson in not letting words get to me." She said and he grinned back. "What happens now?" Harry asked. Despite being emancipated, they still left the big decisions to the true adults, while they were still in school. "You'll continue on with the rest of the year. Exams start very soon and I don't want either of you to fail, understood?" Severus asked sternly and the twins immediately nodded. Tom grinned at seeing the usually mature twins immediately cower at their father's stern look.

The three Snapes left after Tom promised to be slightly kinder to the twins in classes. Padma, Draco and Neville immediately noticed the twins attitude during breakfast. Luna just smiled at Harry. "You finally found out." She said. "You knew!?" The twins asked at the same time and she nodded. "You secretive little brat." Helena muttered lightheartedly "What's going on?" Padma asked."It's Eldir. He's actually Tom." Harry muttered.

Three different jaws fell. "You're bloody joking!" Neville hissed as he glanced at the man. "He was Tom all this time?" Padma asked and the twins nodded. "Then what the bloody hell was it with that comment during Helena's detention?" She asked with a growl. "It slipped out. He already apologised for it and before you ask, Padfoot enchanted our maps, so we would see his fake name." Helena explained to them

"The only reason we found out was because he hadn't enchanted Fred and George's map and they brought it to our attention." Harry continued. "The dark Lord's plan being foiled again by twins. Oh the irony" Draco muttered and everyone snorted at that, before they stood up one-by-one and went to study as it was a Saturday. They tried studying together as much as possible, but after discovering the three idiots trying to follow them, they made sure to leave one at a time and regroup at Myrtle's bathroom. From there, it was a slide downwards. 

Luna often went with them, even though she didn't have her O.W.Ls until next year. Harry just didn't trust the idiots not to harm her, even if they didn't know she was his soulmate. If she wasn't with them, then Dobby would pop her to Ravenclaw tower. Granger, Weasley and Weaselette were getting more and more relentless in trying to find out what his mark said, but he had Helena hide it with a spell. 

"You knew about Tom, didn't you?" Harry asked Myrtle as he entered the bathroom and the ghost giggled mischievously. "Of course. He's my soulmate. It was nice to finally properly meet him. I just wish I still had a body." She said, growing a bit melancholy at the end and everyone gave her sympathetic smiles, before quietly leaving her alone at her request and sliding down towards the Chamber of Secrets 

The nice thing about having a room underneath the lake was that it was almost completely silent and Halina turned out to be a really good history teacher from founders time and on. As they were deeply studying, Helena suddenly had an idea while leaning against Halina's scales. "I may have an idea to get the idiots off our backs about our marks for a while." She said, everyone looking up at that. "How?" Harry asked, his arm tightly around Luna. "I'll show them my mark. Caspian isn't in this world anyway, but I'd like to see Dumbledore try to find him." Helena answered.

Harry grinned, before frowning. "Are you sure that you want that attention on yourself?" He asked and she immediately nodded in answer. "I'm sure I can handle it, don't worry." She said with a grin. He reluctantly nodded at her words, before Luna snuggled closer to him and he was distracted, caressing her hair with his free hand and smiling at her. Helena watched them with a small smile on her own face.

It was hard, seeing all her friends and brother be all romantic and incredibly cute with their soulmates, while hers was in a different world. Only Padma kinda knew what she was going through as Viktor was in another country, but not exactly. However, she knew that they would be reunited one day. She just had to be patient. Although, she did wonder how much longer she had to be patient. Aslan wouldn't be as mean to wait until she was an old lady, would He? She shook her head. He wasn't that cruel.

She shook her head as she buried herself into her Transfiguration book again, trying to concentrate on the more important subject at hand. Those worries would have to wait, until later Exams were starting in just a few weeks time and she really wanted to pass them. Not only did her absolute dream career depend on her getting excellent results, but her dad would kill her if she failed them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I snickered writing the vault numbers for Dumbledore.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time.


	17. Meetings and some exams

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

A few days before the exams, the order came together again in Dumbledore's office. They talked about how Voldemort hadn't gone after the prophecy like Dumbledore had predicted. "Timothy, have you heard anything?" The stupid man asked the person he was looking for. "No. The lower circles of society are particularly tight-lipped." Tom said, barely suppressing his smirk at Dumbledore's idiocy.

"Hmm. That's a pity, but I'm sure that you did your best, my boy." Dumbledore said, before changing the subject to the upcoming exams. "Severus, are your students ready?" He asked. "As ready as they can be." Severus said, wondering why he was asking. "I'm sure that Harry and Helena will get the right results to become an auror and healer." Molly Weasley said haughtily, Arthur not being there to stop her. "I'm sure that they will, but they really don't want to become an Auror and healer." Severus said, calmly. "What?!" Molly and Dumbledore said.

"But they have to be an Auror and healer! They have to help our world!" Molly loudly protested. "And I'm sure that they will in their own way, but they don't want to have those jobs and I'm not going to force them to get jobs they don't want. As long as they're happy doing what they want, I'll be fine with it." Severus growled, gripping the armrests of his chair. "What do they want to do?" Tom asked. 

He could see that Severus was about to attack the woman if he didn't distract the man. "Harry wants to become a Cursebreaker at Gringotts and Helena wants to become an Unspeakable at the Department of Mysteries." Severus answered and Dumbledore choked on one of his lemon drops. "What?! But that's far too dangerous for them! How dare you expose them to that danger?!" Molly demanded. 

"Being an auror is dangerous and you just said that Harry was ready for that." Sirius took over, completely done. "Well, I can't wait to see Harry working at Gringotts." Bill said with a warm smile. "Even I have to say that being a Cursebreaker and an Unspeakable suits Harry and Helena more than being an Auror and healer does." Pomona Sprout said after a bit of thinking. She had been a bit surprised about what they wanted to do, but the more that she thought about it, the more it fitted them. Severus smiled at her in gratitude and gave her a nod.

"Are Harry and Helena sure about this?" Dumbledore asked. This wasn't good. The twins couldn't be a Cursebreaker and an Unspeakable. A cursebreaker would be abroad most of the time and an Unspeakable would answer to almost no one and ask too many questions about magic. He did his best not to glare at Severus. Damn that man! Ever since he got the twins back, nothing went like he wanted them to.

"Oh, yeah. They're pretty sure." Severus replied coolly. "And what about your daughter's soulmate?" Molly asked. Weasley had "caught" a glimpse at Helena's mark and had quickly gone to inform his mother and Dumbledore. The latter had immediately gone to look for anyone in the school with that name, but he hadn't found anything. It didn't help that Weasley hadn't really caught the last name, just an X.

"What about him? We haven't met him yet." Severus said, gesturing to him, Remus and Sirius. "However, I'm sure that he won't mind her job as well as long as she's happy. He better be anyway, because I'll poison him if he doesn't." He continued. Molly huffed. "She should really be a healer. Unspeakables ask too many questions." She said, before getting silenced by a furious Fleur who had recently joined the order to mess with Dumbledore and his cronies. She had been told who Eldir really was by the twins, minus the infamous comment. 

She honestly thought it was the greatest prank ever and happily played along by pretending not to know where "Voldemort" was, but now she was pissed. Who was this woman to think that she could decide what Helena should be? "As I believe has been said to you many times before today: you do not decide what Helena or Harry will do with their lives. You are not their guardian and even Severus let them choose what they want to be." She hissed. 

Molly glared at her. Why did her son have to be connected to a part-Veela. They were dark creatures. "And about Unspeakables asking too many questions: Helena is literally a Ravenclaw. Asking questions is one of the things they are known for." Remus growled, Moony rearing his head at hearing the comment about one of his cubs. More people were glaring at Molly as well, before Dumbledore managed to change the subject. 

"I can't believe that they actually think they can control what my children will become later." Severus growled later in his office, Tom, Andrew, Narcissa, Filius and even Minerva sitting there as well. "I agree. He and Molly went way too far. I don't understand why they're so focused on them becoming those two things. I can understand Molly's desire for her children to be married to Harry and Helena as that will bring them fame and wealth, but I really cannot figure out why they would want to control their jobs." Minerva said. 

Her world had been completely turned upside down in just a few weeks time after watching the memories. She had realised that some of those she considered friends, were even worse than the worst Death Eaters. At least, the Death Eaters were honest about wanting to kill you. Tom had gone to her and they had reunited after he had explained everything to her they the Snape family had missed.

She had almost gotten a heart-attack at realising exactly how deeply in plain sight he was hiding, but he seemed to have it handled and Dumbledore seemed not to be any wiser that one of his new teachers was actually the guy he was hunting. In fact, he had sent Tom to hunt Tom. She had a good laugh about it in her animagus form to make sure that no one heard her after he had left.

"Dumbledore seemed dead-set on controlling every aspect of Harry's and Helena's lives. From who their friends with to what they will do later." Narcissa growled, hating the guy more than ever. She has watched the memory of the meeting and had seen that Dumbledore had agreed with everything that Molly said and her anger had grown, which she hadn't considered possible. She thanked Merlin that more and more people were starting to doubt the goat with his repeated comments that Tom was back. The teachers left soon after that. 

Severus went to check up on his children and found them deeply studying. During the last few weeks, a black market had started to form in-between the students of Hogwarts that contained goods that supposedly helped you with your exams, but Harry and Helena knew better than to be tempted. Severus gave them a small smile, before quietly leaving them to study further

A few days after that, it was finally exam time. On Monday was charms, the written exam in the morning. Helena thought that she did really well, her occlumency lessons paying off as she could remember the answers easily and mostly keep her calm. At the practical exam, she found herself doing a bit too well as the egg shell that she had to make do cartwheels, did something that was more of a somersault, before listening.

Tuesday was the exam for Transfiguration. Questions during the written exam included the definition of the switching spell. It also asked them to number the kinds of animals most difficult to vanish. During the practical exam, she actually had to do the vanishing charm on a rabbit and did it perfectly. She heard about how Neville's soulmate had somehow managed to transform her ferret in a flock of flamingos and the exam had to be paused for a few minutes to catch all of them. She had no idea how the girl had done that, but she was impressed. 

Wednesday was herbology, which was rather easy. She only had to tap the devil's snare three times to get it to back off. Thursday during the DADA written exam was the most fun that she had during exams ever. As soon as she read question ten, she almost burst out into laughter right there _. 'Five signs to recognise a werewolf? Are you kidding me?'_ She thought, before answering it while laughing in her head. Padma gave her a grin from her seat. 

The practical exam was also a lot of fun. She thanked Tonks in her head as the young auror had tried her best to catch them all up to speed. She had to perform counter-curses and even a Riddikulus spell. The woman taking her exam, Ms Watson was slightly worried about her boggart taking on the form of her father, but she quietly explained the reason. "I'm not afraid of my dad, ma'am. I'm afraid that he'll abandon me and my brother." She said. 

Ms Watson relaxed at that, aware of Helena's past and nodded in understanding. At the end of the exam, she held up a finger to show that they weren't done yet. "Now, Ms. Snape. This next part isn't required, but it will give you bonus points if you can show me a powerful defensive spell that's not on the list that we just went through." She explained and Helena thought for a minute. "There is one that I've practiced with my brother and uncle during summer and again during break, but I'm not sure if I can do it now. I'm willing to try though." She said. 

"Well then. By all means, go ahead." Ms Watson said with a smile. Taking a deep breath, Helena first concentrated on the memory of her and her family celebrating Christmas together, before another memory came and pushed it away. It was the memory of her and Caspian dancing in her dream, the king smiling at her with love in his eyes. With a smile of her own on her face, she raised her wand. _"Expecto Patronum."_ She said.

A bright light shot out of her wand and took on the form of a winged horse. Many people gasped as everyone stared at the patronus fly around. Ms Watson was rapidly scribbling on her sheet. "Very impressive. Very, _very_ impressive." She commented and Helena smiled at her in gratitude. Ms Watson assumed her patronus was the smaller version of the winged horses that had pulled the Beauxbatons carriage. 

Helena just smiled and silently shrugged in answer, knowing exactly what kind of winged horse her patronus was. She could hear Aurora laughing in her head as the Pegasus was with Luna at the moment, her and an invisible Winky making sure that Weaselette didn't do anything to the girl now that Harry and Helena were busy. They were soon let out after that, many people asking Helena how she did it. She just smiled and replied that she trained a lot and that it had taken her more than a year to get it and even then that it took a lot out of her.

Friday probably had the most difficult exam for Helena until now. She really loved ancient runes, but they sure were difficult. Some of the runes described were almost the same, but meant two completely different things. It was all very frustrating, but she had to push through. She was just glad that it only had a written exam, but not a practical one.She sighed in relief at finishing it and rubbed her arm to get feeling back in it.

She was glad it was over, but she still had a way to go. Next week were potions and history to name a few and she had to be ready for those as well, especially the former. As soon as the exam was over, they were let go. She joined her brother and friends, Aurora immediately flying towards her as she sat down and started to discuss the exams with the others as they went to prepare for the other exams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Accidentally posted this chapter on the wrong story... oops. I hope that the subscribers didn't get an email, only to be disappointed.
> 
> Next chapter will be Harry's exams. 
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	18. The rest of the exams and conversations

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Harry had never been so glad to have a potions master as a father as the questions of the potion exam were quite difficult. Then again, potions could be very dangerous if not handled or brewed correctly, so he could understand it. Some questions were really difficult like the effects of Polyjuice Potion. Harry knew that if Granger and Weasley had succeeded brewing it in their second year, they would know the answer. 

The practical exam went well, although it was quite weird not to have his dad in the same room as the potion making. He was given the name of a random potion that he had to brew and had to get the right ingredients and just brew it as best as he could. He knew that the classes for the N.E.W.T exams would be even more difficult, but he first had to finish this one. Concentrating himself, he found that time flew and before he knew it, he had to wrap it up. He thought that he did a decent job, but he of course wouldn't know until this summer

Something very peculiar happened during the Astronomy practical exam. They had to look through their telescopes and fill out an empty map of the stars. Seemed easy enough, but about half an hour in, something quickly shot past the stars he was studying. It seemed like a rainbow coloured beam shooting itself into the cosmos. He pulled back and blinked to get the famous black spots out of his vision, before continuing on. 

Arithmancy was on Wednesday and Harry had a really good feeling about it, but mostly because Helena and Luna had really helped him study for this as they knew how important it was for him to pass this. Cayden gave his own support by wrapping himself around his arm and gently squeezing. Harry had asked him not to give him any of the answers as he counted that as cheating and the Occamy had reluctantly agreed.

History of magic was the final exam that they had to take on Thursday and both twins thanked Tom as he had helped them study as well. Despite the incredible warmth and humidity in the room, Harry pushed through and managed to finish the exam just in time. He knew that it wasn't an "O," but hopefully it would be an "EE." He sighed in relief as they were finally let out and went to his father's study. The man himself wasn't there as he was still teaching the other years, but Helena and their friends soon joined, food and drinks appearing on the table.

A card was lying next to the food, congratulating them on finishing the exams and sloppily signed by both Dobby and Winky. "Thanks, guys." Harry muttered with a small smile. "That's so sweet." Helena commented with a touched smile. They talked about the exams for quite a while, before the last class was finished and Severus came in. "Oh, look at that. My office gets invaded." He said sarcastically. 

Everyone grinned at him, knowing that he didn't mean it and that he didn't really mind it. Luna soon joined them after her last class and snuggled with Harry after giving Aurora back to Helena, but Neville left with a comment that he had to ask Tom about something. Everyone watched him go with confused looks on their faces, before letting it go for now after Luna said that it was personal

In the meantime, Neville knocked on Tom's door. "Oh, hello Mr. Longbottom. How can I help you?" Tom greeted after letting him in. "I had a question about what happened at the end of the war." The boy said nervously. "Didn't you just have your history exam?" Tom asked. "It's more of a personal question and I'm not asking professor Eldir about this." Neville answered and Tom immediately straightened up, understanding what he meant and warding the door to prevent anyone listening. "Ah, I see. What do you want to know?" He asked gently 

Neville gulped. "Did you ever think about recruiting Bellatrix Lestrange again?" He asked, his voice barely audible and Tom had to strain to hear it. "I will admit that I considered it for a very short second, but then I heard what she, Crouch, Rodolphus and Rabastan did and there was no way that I would ever have them in my ranks again after that. In fact, I asked the goblins to give them something to remove their magic and they did." He said

Neville sighed in relief and Tom smiled at him. "They will never hurt anyone again, Neville. I promise. The cuffs that the goblins gave them are only visible to them and render them as powerful as Filch. I also asked the goblins to tell them that I was absolutely disgusted by them, which is an even worse hell on earth for them than the literal hell they live in." He continued and Neville chuckled

"Could you bring my parents back?" Neville asked. Tom shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Neville. You'd need to be God to do that. I'm not even sure if Helena at full power could do it." He said. Neville nodded a bit sadly, before thanking him and leaving.The next day, Harry and Draco were walking to the Great Hall for breakfast. They stopped as they heard an odd sound. It sounded like bangs coming closer. Other students stopped as well at hearing it and looked around. Just as they were wondering what was happening, Fred and George swooped down on their brooms and let fireworks explode everywhere in the hall.

The big words _"EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!"_ shone in the sky as the students cheered loudly. "Of freaking course." Harry muttered to Draco and his friend chuckled.The fireworks kept going throughout the whole day and many students wanted to buy them, the Weasley twins gave them all that they got on the subject for half the price as a thank you for helping them realising their dream.

"Do I even want to know?" Severus asked rhetorically while rubbing his forehead as his children carried everything in. "We have to get revenge on Sirius somehow for lying about Tom." Helena remarked. "Just leave me, the kitchen, my bedroom and my lab alone. Besides, Sirius and Remus have finally found a new home. They'll move in the second week of summer." Severus rose them and they immediately nodded, before he walked away.

"We better hurry then." He heard Helena mutter behind him and shook his head. The mutt was utterly screwed, unless he managed to get Lupin on his side.Harry and Helena discussed several ideas, before deciding to look them over with the Weasley twins and standing up to go to say hi to Halina. Just as they were getting close to Myrtle's bathroom, they came across Tom and the man decided to join them as he hadn't seen Halina since he was a student as well. "You haven't come here as a teacher?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Nah, didn't want to risk Halina accidentally telling you who I really was." Tom replied and they had to concede at that, before arriving and slipping inside the bathroom. After a slightly awkward conversation between Tom and Myrtle, they were sliding down. _"Hatchlings! And older hatchling! You're back!'"_ An ecstatic Halina greeted them, pushing the laughing Tom over like an overeager pet.

Three twins hadn't told her that Tom was at the school to surprise her. Tom laughed and stroked her scales. _"I'm back, Halina. And I'm fully myself."_ He said and Halina hissed excitedly in happiness. After she settled down, the twins sat down and told Halina the full story of the past year. Halina laughed at Dumbledore sending Tom after himself, but gave him a shove at hearing the detention comment.

"See, even Halina knows you went too far." Harry commented. "I know. Stop reminding me." Tom murmured as he rubbed his arm from where Halina had shoved him. Even while very gentle with them, she was still a basilisk of several hundred pounds. In the meantime, Padma was outside with her sister, a still growing Artemis lying next to her with the Wampus' head in her lap and Parvati on her other side with Kenna. Padma noticed that her sister seemed sad. "What's wrong?" She asked gently and Parvati sighed deeply. "I just realised that Kenna will live far longer than I do." She muttered

Padma had nothing to say to that as it was true. Just as she wanted to say something, the idiots interrupted and demanded to know where Harry and Helena were. Kenna glared at the trio and let out a sharp trill, the earth rumbling in response." What was that?" Granger wanted to know. "Kenna is an earth Phoenix. Trust me, you don't want her pissed off." Parvati warned. The idiots paled before running off.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Padma said, before looking back at her sister. "I'm sure you and Kenna will be fine." She said and Parvati gave her a tiny smile as she stroked her familiar's chest feathers. "I hope so." She muttered, before falling silent. Kenna noticed her Witch's sullen mood and started to sing to try and cheer her up. Flowers began to bloom all around them as the sisters enjoyed listening to the Phoenix. The exams were done and summer was close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another year slowly draws to a close. I wouldn't be surprised if next chapter is the last one. 
> 
> Btw. I found a YouTube channel of a Russian couple living with an actual puma as their pet and the first thing I thought was "real life Viktor and Padma in the future." XD
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	19. Summertime

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

In the days after the exams, the students relaxed. They had done their best and now, they just had to wait for the results to be delivered Padma had written Viktor about the exam and he had wished her luck as had Cedric and Fleur. Bill had also written Harry, wishing him luck with his exams and telling him that he hoped that they would be colleagues one day. Harry had smiled at that. 

The only bad thing was that Dumbledore called the twins up to his office once again. He hadn't done so last year or before Christmas, so they had foolishly hoped that he wouldn't do it anymore, but alas. "I swear, Albus. If this is about you trying to send my children somewhere they don't want to go again, I'll put my grievances with the Board." Severus growled as he, his children and Filius walked in. He was already completely done and the goat hadn't even opened his mouth yet. Dumbledore gave him a look, but he ignored it.

"Severus, you must see reason now. Since Voldemort is back, your children need to be in a safe place. I suggest Grimmauld Place as soon as Sirius allows us to use it as headquarters." Dumbledore. "Grimmauld Place? Isn't that the place that Sirius hates more than anything?" Helena asked sarcastically and Harry, Severus and professor Flitwick all nodded in answer. She simply raised an eyebrow in reaction to that. 

"No thanks. If Sirius hates it, then we'll most definitely hate it." She continued, sending a silent apology to Kreacher. "What she said. Besides, we're more than safe where we are. Do you know where we live?" Harry asked. "No." Dumbledore muttered, hating that he had to admit it. "Well, then. I don't see why we have to discuss this anymore. My children will stay with me and that's final. Anything else?" Severus asked. 

"Yes. I've managed to collect several memories about Tom's past. I think it's for the greater good if we would meet every once in a while to review them and better understand them to further your training." Dumbledore almost growled, looking at the twins. "Training? Who said anything about training?" Helena asked, utterly confused about how he had come to that point. "Well you have to train to defeat Tom when the moment is right. It will be a good practice for when you become an auror, Harry." Dumbledore said. 

"Albus! They're students! They're not qualified to fight You-know-Who. We have actual Aurors for that. They're supposed to learn, not do a job that's supposed to be done by adults!" Filius growled. "And as I've already stated, Harry wants to become a cursebreaker." Severus hissed. "But that's far too dangerous for him." Dumbledore protested. "And being an Auror isn't dangerous?!" Four voices asked at the same time. 

Dumbledore growled under his breath, before returning to the matter at hand. "As I was saying, I think it's for the best to review those memories just in case they could help." He said and Helena hummed. "I'm not sure what's in those memories that Voldemort can't tell us himself when we meet him for weekly tea." She said, her voice just the right amount of sarcastic to make it impossible to discern if she was serious or not.

"This is not something to joke or lie about, my girl." Dumbledore said disapprovingly. "Well, you lie about him being back and you try to pull us into that. Seems rather hypocritical to scold us about it" Harry muttered. "I'm not lying, my boy. Tom is back and you must know it too. It's of vital importance that you defeat him." Dumbledore almost growled again. "Then where is he, Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?" Helena asked annoyingly, until Severus scolded her and she quieted down. Dumbledore asked them again and the twins shared a look. 

They knew he was going to nag and bother them, until they agreed. "Alright, but only if dad, professor Flitwick or aunt Narcissa is with us." Harry said as he crossed his arms. "Now, I'm sure that that isn't necessary." Dumbledore sputtered, not wanting Severus to see the memories. "That's our condition about your stupid memory offer.Take it or leave it." Helena said coolly with a raised eyebrow. The goat finally agreed and they left.

"Well done, you two." Severus immediately praised his children as soon as they were out of Dumbledore's hearing range and they quickly smiled at him. "I can't believe you made that comment." Harry laughed at his sister and Helena shrugged. "It sounds too stupid to be true, but it is. Not that he knows that." She said, before they split up. Unfortunately for Harry, Weaselette stepped in front of him and blocked his way.

"Hi, Harry. I was wondering if you wanted to play quidditch with me." The obsessed girl said, fluttering her eyelashes once again. She was the Gryffindor Seeker and was already wearing her robes, convinced that Harry would say yes. "And have the risk of what happened to you during the first quidditch match happen to me? No way." Harry said with a smirk that looked so much like hous father's. His smirk grew at seeing the girl getting red in the face. During the first match of the season, she had tried to do the soulmate trick with the snitch. 

However, since Harry wasn't her real soulmate, the snitch repeatedly hit her in the face in front of anyone until she cancelled it. "Besides, I only go flying with people I like and last time I checked, you still weren't one of them." He said, before walking away. He heard her shout a spell and ducked, the spell flying over him just as the disguised Tom came around the corner. "Ms. Weasley! My office now!" He ordered, quickly looking Harry over for any injuries.

He was fine as Weaselette stormed away with Tom following. "Phew." Harry whispered as he stood back up and had to calm down a worried Cayden. He quickly found his friends close to the lake and told them what she has tried to do. They were shocked and it the looks on Fred and George's faces were anything to go by, summer wouldn't be pleasant for her. Luna squeezed his hand and he smiled at her.

She smiled back, before lying down with her head resting on his leg and reading The Quibbler upside down. He gently stroked her hair as their friends closed ranks around them, hiding Luna's position from view. Artemis was keeping most students away anyway as no one wanted to get close to the Wampus. Helena joined them after about an hour, having cleaned up her room and prepared most of her trunk as they would leave the next day. "Weird to think that we only have two more years after this." She muttered and most of the others agreed. 

Fred and George were done with school and would start their shop and Luna had three more years to go. They just enjoyed spending time in the sun, until Bob playfully sprayed them with water from the lake and they had to go inside to change. During dinner, everyone noticed that Gryffindor was fifty points down and everyone wondered why. Harry made sure to murder about what Ginny tried to do in front of Lavender Brown. 

Soon enough, the whole school would know. "You know, I never asked after it, but do Weasley and Granger have marks?" Helena asked. "I don't believe so." Harry said with a frown, but he didn't really care about it. As long as they didn't have them as their mates. During dinner, it turned out that Slytherin had won the house cup again and not one, but three houses cheered. The bad reputation of Slytherin was fading. 

The next day, everyone was ready to go home. There was a small problem with Artemis as she didn't exactly fit in a travel basket anymore, but Kenna teleported her home. The friends excitedly talked about what they were going to do during the summer and especially Helena was excited. Aurora was starting to get her golden fur and soon, she would be able to ride her. She couldn't wait. Before they knew it, they were riding into the station. The twins quickly ran towards their uncle Remus and were immediately taken home. "Hey, pups. How was school?" Sirius asked, before Helena punched him on the arm.

"That's for not telling us about Tom." She said and he laughed. "Oh, come on. It was a prank and he fooled you too." He said. "Yeah. By the way, you've got a stain on your robes." She said as she started to walk upstairs with Harry. "What, where?" Sirius asked, looking down. "Monkeys always look! Monkeys always look!" The twins chanted, before fleeing upstairs. Remus sighed deeply as Sirius followed them. 

This was going to be a long bloody summer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. I've got a couple of ideas for the summer, but I'm empty for the school year, except for the memories sessions. Any ideas and suggestions are welcome.
> 
> Read and review. See you next time


	20. New story!

Hey guys.

The next story is already up. It's called "the goddess and the nonexistent war." Go check it out :)


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